404 CUCURBITACEAE (GOURD FAMILY) 
fragrant, each subtended by a chaffy bract tapering to an awn 
longer than the flower; stamens four, inserted on the tube of the 
corolla ; ovary inferior, one-celled. Some flower communities pro- 
gress in their bloom from the base upward, others from the top 
downward; but Teasels girdle the middle of the heads with the 
first flowers and proceed both ways, though the last flowers of 
September are likely to be as round as clover-heads and produce 
all their blossoms at once with an air which says, “'Time’s up! All 
out!” Fruit a hard, wedge-shaped, square, black, grooved achene, 
about a quarter-inch long. (Fig. 282.) 
Means of control 
Cut first-year rosettes from the roots with sharp hoe or spud, 
in autumn or early spring. Flowering stalks should be pulled or 
closely cut before the earliest heads ripen seed. 
WILD GOURD. 
Cucirbita fetidissima, H. B. K. 
(Cuctrbita perénnis, Gray) 
Other English names: Missouri Gourd, Calabazilla, Fetid Wild 
Pumpkin. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: April to July. 
Seed-time: July to November. 
Range: Nebraska to California, southward to Texas and Mexico. 
Habitat: Dry or sandy soil; fields and waste places. 
Root yellow inside, carrot-like, very thick and fleshy, often more 
than six inches in diameter and sometimes exceeding five feet in 
length. Stem stout, angled, ridged, rough-hairy, many-branched, 
fifteen to twenty-five feet long, trailing and rooting at the joints or 
climbing by means of branching tendrils. Leaves alternate, rather 
thick, four inches to a foot in length, ovate-triangular, long-pointed, 
usually truncate at base or sometimes heart-shaped, rough above, 
gray-hairy beneath, sharply toothed, with rough-hairy petioles less 
than half as long as the blades. The whole plant has a disagree- 
able, fetid odor, especially when bruised. Flowers solitary in the 
axils and unisexual; calyx five-lobed, ridged, and bristly; corolla 
