COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 449 
common names. Stem stout, four to ten feet tall, smooth or nearly 
so, branching at the top into a loose and sprawling panicle. Leaves 
alternate, mostly basal, a foot or more in length and about six 
inches wide, thick and leathery, rough on both sides but especially 
so beneath, heart-shaped at base and pointed at tip, sharply 
toothed, with long, stout, grooved petioles. Heads numerous, two 
or three inches broad, with many long, yellow rays which are pistil- 
late and fertile; disk-florets perfect but sterile; involucre hemi- 
spheric, its bracts erect, obtuse, and smooth. Achenes oblong, 
flat, narrowly winged, slightly notched at the top, and two-toothed. 
Means of control 
Turning out the perennial roots with a plow in the fall is the 
surest method of destruction; but as it is most frequently a weed 
of permanent grasslands, deep cutting with sharp hoe or spud, 
just before the blooming season, is the next best remedy, using a 
handful of salt on the cut surface of the roots in order to retard 
their recovery. 
CUP PLANT 
Silphium perfolidtum, L. 
Other English names: Indian Cup, Ragged Cup. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: July to September. j 
Seed-time: August to October. = 
Range: Ontario to the Dakotas, southward to Louisiana and 
Texas. 
Habitat: Prairies; meadows, pastures, and waste places. 
A large, stout weed with square, pale green stems, often more 
than an inch in thickness. at the base, four to eight feet tall, 
growing from thick, perennial roots in great tufts, or thickets. 
Leaves opposite, large, broadly oval, pointed, coarsely toothed, the 
upper ones united at their bases and forming rather deep cups 
which retain dew and rain. Lower leaves very large and abruptly 
narrowed to winged petioles, which are also joined at base; for 
their size the leaves are rather thin, and’ are of a sandpaper 
roughness on both sides. Flower-heads few because of the curious 
progression of bloom; the first one grows from the center of a cup, 
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