HORDEAE 157 



coarse, rough, grass-like leaves and a large panicle of small 

 but numerous spikelets (blackish green), that grows in wet 

 bottoms in the Pecos Valley near Roswell. It may occur in 

 the tule swamps at other places, but has not been collected. 

 It is of no value as forage. 



The Spike Rushes (Eleocliaris spp. ) are jmall plants 

 with single, slender, cylindric or slightly flattened stems 

 from one or two inches to a foot high, terminated by a single 

 small, brown or yellow spikelet without any subtending 

 leaves or bracts; and the proper leaves reduced to a short 

 sheath at the base, which hardly comes above the surface of 

 the ground. They usually form a thick sod of small area 

 on saturated soil beside bog holes, springs, small streams or 

 in the cienagas. They add a little to the forage, but it is 

 of slight importance. The species look very much alike and 

 the characters by which they are differentiated are such as 

 one usually needs a lens to see. 



Stcnophyllus and Hemicarpha are included only, for 

 completeness as there is never enough of them to be of value 

 ■economically. Both are small plants rarely over six inches 

 high and grass-like in apeparance. 



The Bull Rush (Scirpus occidentalis) is easily rec- 

 ognized by its tall, bluish-green stems the size of a lead 

 pencil, with the yellowish brown panicle at the top, as they 

 grow in bogs and drowned flats wherever the water stands all 

 the time, associated with Cat Tails and other reeds and rushes. 

 Other and smaller species with triangular stems found in 

 similar situations are S. olneyi, S. amcricanns, and 5". campes- 

 iris, the latter with several flat leaves as bracts about the 

 panicle. vS. microcarpus and 5". atrovirens are coarse leafy 

 rushes growing in the water beside streams in the mountains 

 at medium to moderately high levels, where the soil and 

 water are not very alkaline and the air rather cool. All of 

 these plants are eaten more or less by stock, though in the 

 main they grow where the animals have difficulty in getting 

 at them. They are not very valuable economically. 



