46 



Mountain foxtail (fig. 14), which is also sometimes called mouutain 

 timothy, has much the appearance of true mountain or alpine timothy, 

 but is usually more robust and of a softer texture and produces a 

 better looking hay, much like that from the cultivated meadow foxtail 

 {Alojyecnrus 2)rattnsis), which this grass resembles in habit of growth. 

 Although found throughout the Rocky Mountain region, and having 

 similar altitudiual limits, it is much less common as a rule than alpine 

 timothy. It is abundant in the rich, moist meadows of the Spanish 



Basin and elsewhere in south- 

 western Montana, and makes a 

 remarkably luxuriant growth, 

 frequently reaching a height of 

 three or four feet, and is one 

 of the most promising of the 

 native grasses for cultiyation in 

 meadows at the higher altitudes. 

 ' Several of the native brome- 

 grasses are of great value in the 

 native meadows at an altitude 

 of from 5,000 to 8,000 feet in 

 Wyoming and Montana and 

 from 0,000 to 9,500 in Colorado. 

 The most valuable of these 

 brome- grasses are short-awned 

 brome [Bromus breviaristatus) 

 (see fig. 15) and Western brome 

 {Bromus pumpellianns). Both 

 are coarse- growing perennials 

 and occur throughout the Kocky 

 Mountain region, chiefly in the 

 rather dry valleys and "i^arks;'^ 

 the former selecting the moister 

 situations and the latter the 

 drier ones. Although they are 

 often found growing together, 

 Western brome- grass seems to 

 have a somewliat higher alti- 

 tudiual limit, its point of best development usually ranging from 

 500 to 1,000 feet above that of short-awned brome. The latter is 

 occasionally abundant down as low as 4,000 feet in central Montana, 

 while the former is but rarely found at that altitude. In northern 

 Wyoming short-awned brume is most abundant at from 5,000 to 

 7,000 feet and Western brome at from 0,000 to 8,000. Both of these 

 grasses have been cultivated in some parts of the Northwest with suc- 

 cess and promise to be valuable for meadows at high altitudes. West- 

 ern brome has very much the same appearance and habit of growth as 



Fio. 14.— Mountaiu Foxtail (Alopecurus occidentalis) . 



