like and prolonged into awns. In rock wheatgrass, a densely tufted 

 perennial with thick heads up to 5 inches long, occurring sparsely 

 on mountain slopes in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California, 

 the awns are divergent, those of the glumes being from three- 

 fourths of an inch to 2 inches long. In this species the lemmas, or 

 outer flower bracts, bear divergent awns from about three-sixteenths 

 to three-fourths of an inch long. In Saunders wheatgrass, a species 

 locally distributed in western Colorado and eastern Utah, the pur- 

 plish, erect heads are from about 3 to 6 inches long and the awns 

 are straight. The awns of the lemmas are from three-eighths to 

 nine-sixteenths of an inch long and those of the glumes are from 

 three-fourths of an inch to l 1 /^ inches long. Spreading wheatgrass 

 is a densely tufted perennial with thick, bearded heads up to 3 inches 

 long. It occurs typically on rocky slopes in the high mountains 

 from Montana and Idaho to California and New Mexico and is 

 relatively unimportant as a range forage plant. 



Quackgrass (A. repens), a perennial, is native to Europe but 

 widely distributed in the United States and is on the increase in 

 the West. It is frequently a pernicious weed in many agricultural 

 lands but is valuable as a range plant, and constitutes a good soil- 

 binder for railway embankments and other cuts or slopes. It serves 

 as a satisfactory hay plant for 2 or 3 years but then becomes sod 

 bound. Quackgrass is rather coarse with bright yellowish green, 

 scaly rootstocks which contain considerable sugar and triticin, a 

 carbohydrate similar to inulin, valuable for treatment of kidney 

 disorders. 



Some species of wheatgrass, notably bluestem (A. smithii) and 

 quackgrass, are often infected with ergot. This poisonous fungus 

 replaces the "seeds" with black or purplish club-shaped bodies. 

 If the infested heads are consumed by livestock, illness and possibly 

 death result, although comparatively large dosages are required. 

 The symptoms of ergotism naturally assume two forms: (1) The 

 gangrenous form, and (2) the nervous, or spasmodic form. In the 

 first there are coldness and anesthesia (lack of feeling) of the ex- 

 tremities, including the feet, ears, and tail of quadrupeds ; the comb, 

 tongue, and beak of birds followed by the appearance of passive 

 congestion, blebs (blisters), and dry gangrene in the vicinity of 

 these parts, the hoofs and beak often dropping off. In the nervous, 

 or spasmodic, form are seen toxic contraction of the flexor tendons 

 of the limbs and anesthesia of the extremities; muscular trembling 

 and general tetanic spasm, with opisthotonos (bending backward 

 of the body), convulsions, and delirium. Death ensues, in both 

 forms, from general exhaustion. 1 



1 Pammel, L. H., A MANUAL OP POISONOUS PLANTS, CHIEFLY OP EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, 



WITH BRIEF NOTES ON ECONOMIC AND MEDICINAL PLANTS ... 2 ptS., illuS. Cedar Rapids, 



Iowa. 1910-11. 



