298 ONAGRACEAE (EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY) 
pink as they wither, four long-pointed, reflexed calyx-lobes, 
usually eight stamens, drooping like a tassel, and a long, declin- 
ing style with four-parted stigma; ovary at the base of the 
long calyx-tube, one-celled. Fruits nut-like, four-ribbed, pointed 
at oo ends, finely downy, and nearly a half-inch long. (Fig. 
207. 
Means of control 
Leaf-tufts of autumn plants should be spudded off or destroyed 
by deep hoe-cutting. Plants that have survived to the second 
season should have flowering-stalks closely cut in their first bloom, 
the shorn surfaces being treated with salt in order to prevent stool- 
ing. If not allowed to mature seed the weed is readily suppressed. 
WOOLLY GAURA 
Gatra villésa, Torr. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
Range: Prairies, Kansas to Arkansas and Texas. 
Habitat: Cultivated crops, grain fields, meadows, pastures. 
A sturdy weed, with a stout, woody, branching stem, one to three 
feet tall, very objectionable in pasture or meadow, for cattle reject 
the plant either as green forage or as hay and it dulls and breaks 
the mowing-machine knives. The whole plant is covered with 
soft, fuzzy, grayish hairs. Leaves alternate and sessile, but vary 
in shape from lanceolate to sometimes nearly linear at the upper 
part of the plant, to wavy-toothed or even pinnatifid ones near the 
base. Flowers white or pinkish, nearly an inch across, the calyx 
very hairy, its tube funnel-shaped above the ovary, with linear, 
reflexed lobes; the stamens are shorter than the petals, but the 
style is long, with four-parted stigma. The nut-like fruit is spar- 
ingly hairy or sometimes smooth, four-ribbed, tapering to both 
base and apex but narrowing most abruptly to the short, slender 
pedicel. 
