352 



GRASSES OF IOWA. 

 WATER FREE EXTRACT. 



Mississippi, collected June (')• 





45.13 



Chess or cheat {Bromus secaliniis, L ) is also quite common 

 in many parts of the state, and although more valuable than 

 Bromus hordeaceus, must be regarded as a "weed. 



Chess or cheat is a well known weedy annual grass intro- 

 duced in this country a number of years ago, and pretty gener- 

 ally occurring in the state where wheat is grown. It has a 

 lo:se, spreading panicle. The awns of the flowering glumes 

 are quite variable. This plant is a weed, but not quite so inju- 

 rious as Bromus hordeacetis, as it has some redeeming features as 

 a forage plant. Professor Tracy speaks favorably of this 

 grass for the southern states. Chess or cheat is believed by 

 many people to be a degenerated wheat, but this is not true. 

 Cheat can only produce cheat, and where these plants occur 

 it is certain that they were from cheat sown with the wheat, 

 or that the seeds were scattered by b'rds or animals. Prof. 

 P. LamsonScribner* says: ''Cheat and wheat are only 

 remotely related; they belong to quite distinct tribes in the 

 grass family, and wheat is less likely to change into cheat in a 

 single generation than the more nearly allied oats, or than 

 wheat is to change into barley, with which it is very closely 

 related. " 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. 



The following samples of Bromus secalinus were analyzed in 

 the laboratory at this station: 



Sample 1. May 20, 1896, height 25 to 30 inches. 

 Sample 2. June 15, 1896, height 28 to 29 inches. 



1. U. 8. Dept. Agrl. Exp. Sta. Rec. 6: 101. 1894. 

 *BulI. Div. Agros. U. S. Dept. Agrl. 3: 32. 



