75 



to rot suddenly, destroying oven the roots. This I have never seen or heard men- 

 tioned by uuy other person, hnt it occurred on my own farm one season, wln-iv I was 

 reserving a lot for seed. 



(Plate 86.) 

 Lolium temulentum (Poison Darnel). 



This species is frequently found in grain fields. The seeds have 

 long enjoyed a reputation of being poisonous to stock, and also to man- 

 kind when mixed in large quantity with the wheat or rye used in 

 the making of bread. The question seems hardly yet decided, bat it is 

 best to exterminate the grass as a weed and a pest. 



AGROFYRUM. 



Spikelets several-flowered (three to nine, or more), compressed, alternately sessile 

 on the continuous or slightly-notched rhachis of the simple spike, and with the side 

 against the rhachis; outer glumes nearly equal and opposite, membrauaceous or 

 herbaceous, one to three-nerved, scarcely keeled, tapering to a point or awned ; the 

 flowering similar to the outer ones, rounded on the back ; three to seven-nerved, 

 pointed or awned from the apex ; palet nearly as long as its glume, the two prominent 

 nerves almost marginal, scabrous ciliate. 



Agropyrum glaucum (Blue Stem ; Blnejoint). 



This species, which has been considered a variety of the next, pre- 

 vails on the Western plains from Texas to Montana, and is well 

 known to stockmen. It differs from Agropyrum repens in having a 

 stiffer, more erect and rigid stem and leaves, the leaves often becoming 

 involute. It is generally of a light, bluish-green color. The spike is 

 generally shorter, denser, and with larger spikelets. 



Professor Scribner, writing of this grass in Montana, says : 



It is the most highly praised of the native grasses for hay. Wherever it occupies 

 exclusively any large area of ground, as it does frequently in the lower districts, 

 especialy near Fort Benton, it is cut for hay. Naturally it does not yield a great 

 bulk, but its quality is unsurpassed. After two or three cuttings the yield of hay 

 diminishes so much that it is scarcely worth the harvesting. It is then customary to 

 drag a short-toothed harrow over the sod, which breaks up the creeping roots or 

 underground stems, and each fragment then makes a new plant. 



The same valuable opinion of this grass is entertained by stockmen 

 in Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico. It occurs nearly everywhere, 

 but sparsely, on the plains, and extending quite up into the mountains. 

 In the valleys and along streams it frequently forms large patches and 

 grows closer and more abundant, when it is commonly cut for winter 

 use. (Plate 87.) 

 Agropyrum repens (Couch Grass; Quack Grass). 



There has been a good deal of discussion relative to this grass, some 

 pronouncing it one of the vilest of weeds, and others claiming for it 

 high nutritive qualities overweighingall the disadvantages of its growth. 

 Whichever party may be right, it is proper that farmers should be ac- 

 quainted with it in order to know how. to treat it, and hence our de- 

 scription. It forms a dense sod by means of its far-reaching rhizomas or 

 root stocks, which have short joints, and roots tenaciously at every joint. 



