8 



a height of from 12 to 30 inches. The flowers and seed-pods form a 

 slender cluster from 6 to 12 inches long. The flowers themselves are 

 tiny greenish things, and are soon followed by the oblong three-sided 

 seed-pods. 



The leaf of arrow-grass is slender, bright-green, very much like- grass 

 or sedge. Still it may readily be told from grass by the fact that it is 



not flat like a grass-blade, but is thick 

 and spongy, flat on one side and round 

 on the other. The leaf of arrow-grass 

 is soft, not wiry and tough like that of 

 a sedge. The leaves are attached to an 

 underground stem, about as thick as a 

 lead-pencil, which pushes its way along 

 beneath the surface, sending up leaves 

 and sending down numerous fibrous 

 roots. The general appearance of the 

 plant is shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3. 

 Figure 4. Cross-section of Arrow- A flower cluster and a cluster of seed- 

 Grass leaf, greatly magnified. p0( } s are shown in Figures 5 and 6. 

 (X20). The leaf of Arrow- 

 Grass is thick and spongy, not Distribution. 



rdl " Arrow-grass is widely distributed 

 over the northern half of the world. 

 In North America it is found from New Jersey to California and from 

 Labrador to Alaska. On the sea coast it grows in salt marshes ; inland 

 it may be found in wet alkaline soils and along the edges of sloughs, 

 associated with grasses and sedges and other plants which require 

 much water. 



Three species of arrow-grass occur throughout North America in wet 

 saline or semialkaline soils. At least two of them occur in the pas- 

 tures and meadows in Nevada, but Triglochin maritime, being the 

 larger plant and the most common is probably the one responsible for 

 most of the stock losses that occur from eating this plant. It is not 

 definitely known if the other species are sufficiently abundant and 

 poisonous to be dangerous. 



Losses Due to Arrow-Grass. 



But little is known concerning the extent of animal losses caused by 

 arrow-grass. It has not been generally considered poisonous, and many 

 losses attributed to other causes may have been due to this plant. 

 Dried arrow-grass mixed with hay or fed free from mixture is readily 

 eaten. The green plant does not seem to be distasteful to animals, and 

 it is sometimes eaten greedily, although many other poisonous plants, 

 especially those containing alkaloids, are so bitter that stock will eat 

 them only when forced to do so by extreme hunger. 



Because of its rather pleasing and acceptable taste and because of the 

 fact that the plant often grows in almost pure patches from a few feet 

 to rods across and produces a large quantity of forage, it would seem 

 easier for animals either on pasture or on hay to get a fatal dose- of 

 arrow-grass than of poisonous plants which grow scattered here and 

 there amid other foliage. 

 The Poisonous Principle of Arrow-Grass. 



An air-dried sample of the plant (Triglochin maritima) used in the 

 feeding experiments was examined in the Station Laboratory and was 



