The seed is a trifle larger than a millet seed, spirally coiled, 
ami is not tenacious of life -cold, wet weather injuring its germinat¬ 
ing powers. The plant is an annual, growing each year from the 
seed, and it is not probable that it will germinate if exposed to the 
weather after the first year. As the seed sprouts it unfolds its two 
cotyledons, or seed leaves, which soon accpiire a reddish tint. In 
this stage its growth is slow, it is exceedingly tender, and easily cle- 
stroyed by cultivation. In a short time the plant strikes a deeper 
root, throws out a whorl of several elongated, terete, leaf-like 
branches, from an enlarged base, and now somewhat resembles a 
seedling pine. The stems become streaked with purple or red- 
which is also characteristic of the mature plant until killed by the 
frost at the close of the season. Until the middle of July the plant 
is smooth and succulent, and is readily eaten by cattle, sheep and 
hogs—they will often prefer it even where other pasturage is 
abundant. 
About the midille of July the plant becomes more stiff and 
spiny, and soon throws out numerous small, rose-colored, alternate, 
sessile flowers, about one-eighth of an inch apart on the stem, in the 
axils of three spiny leaflets or bracts. 
The plant makes a rapid growth m grain fields after harvest, 
beginning to mature its seeds about the lasti)f -August. It is now so 
stiff and bristly Jhat no animal will willingly pass through it; and 
\vhen it becomes necessary to use horses in such fields their legs 
are often booteil or wound with cloth to jtrolect them from the 
irritating effects of the cacti. 
The natural habit of the plant is to a lateral more than to a 
vertical growth, but will vary from slender specimens two inches in 
height in crowded, unfavorable localities, to thrifty dome-shaped 
masses six feet in diameter and weighing twenty-five pounds. As 
soon as the plant is killed by the frosts the root cpiicklv decays, and 
the plant is broken loose by the winds, rolling along over the prairies 
for miles, scattering its innumerable seeds along its tiack. 
The plant is supposed to have been introduced into lion 
Homme county, .South Dakota, about fourteen years ago, in seed 
grain brought from Russia, bv immigrants from the \ icinity of the 
Black Sea ; and as the plant is very abuiulant in that locality it is 
highl}' probable that it gained its Northwestern foothold from that 
source—although a plant, Sa/so/a /ca/i, Lhntacus^ a native of Europe, 
has long been naturalized along the sea coast of the Eastern Lbiiteil 
.States. 
The present geographical distribution of the Russian cactus 
covers a large portion of the “Jim” River \’alley in .South Dakota, 
exteiuling into North Dakota nearh' to the Northern Pacific Rail¬ 
road, and east to the eastern confines of the state. Isolateil patches 
are reported in at least three other states. -\t present about 4,000 
square miles in North Dakota are so thickly infested with the weed 
5 
