AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 67 



will still mature seed. It has become naturalized in limited 

 portions of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and perhaps 

 other States. It is a very pretty grass in all its stages ; but es- 

 pecially when the culms two or three feet high are gracefully 

 bending with the weight of the diffuse panicle with its many 

 pedicelled, flattened spikelets, each an inch or more long and 

 with twelve to sixteen flowers. 



I would not, however, advise sowing this grass on poor land 

 with the expectation of getting a remunerative return. It til- 

 lers abundantly under favorable conditions. 



2. B. CABIN ATUS, California Brome Grass, according to Mr. 

 Collier's analyses annexed, is much less nutritious than the pre- 

 ceding species : oil, 2.46 ; wax, .24 ; sugars, 9.38 ; gum and dex- 

 trin, 4.56 ; cellulose, 26.90 ; amylaceous cellulose, 17.02 ; alkali 

 extract, 19.15 ; albuminoids, 9.88 ; ash, 10.31, in 100 parts. Lit- 

 tle is yet known of it. 



3. B. SECALINUS, Cheat or Chess. This well known pest in 

 grain fields had some thirty years ago an infamous notoriety 

 under the name of Willard's grass. With lip and pen the vir- 

 tues of this grass were so adroitly inculcated that the bold Cheat 

 succeeded in selling at fabulous prices his maddeniiig chess, at 

 the same time exacting a pledge from purchasers that it should 

 not be allowed to go to seed ; thus hoping to escape exposure of 

 the fraud, and to reap alone the rewards of his ingenuity. Though 

 not desirable on a farm, it has considerable value as a winter 

 grass. 



4. B. RACEMOSUS, Upright Chess, or Smooth Brome Grass, 

 and 5. B. MOLLIS, Soft Chess or Soft Brome, also are found in 

 grain fields. The seeds of these three species have been a source 

 of great annoyance to farmers, by getting among the wheat 

 and being ground to the serious damage of the flour. In our 

 lower latitudes, sown alone on good soils, they make a large 

 quantity of very inferior forage. If covered some depth in the 

 ground, the seeds remain sound for years, and, when brought 

 near the surface by the plow, promptly germinate and mature 

 another crop. The growth of these species therefore should not 

 be encouraged on our lands. 



6. B. CILIATUS, Fringed Brome Grass and the variety pur- 

 gans are found in old fields and along rich river banks and 

 wooded hills, with stems from two to four feet high. It is one 

 of the least valuable. 



7. B. KALMII, Wild Chess, indigenous to some of our States, 

 and growing two or three feet high, in dry woods, may offer 

 some promise to intelligent experiment. Other species common 

 in Europe are not known here. 



