102 



ERODIUM. 



Ex-odium cicutarium (Alfilaria), 



This annual, supposed to have been introduced from Europe, does not 

 seem to be mentioned in any work on forage plants. It occurs abun- 

 dantly and is of much value for pasture over a large extent of territory in 

 northern California and adjoining regions ;. elsewhere in the United 

 States it is sparingly introduced and usually regarded onty as a weed, 

 though it is not very troublesome. Besides the above name it is known 

 as storksbill, pin clover, pin grass, and filaree; it is neither a grass 

 nor a clover, but belongs to the geranium family ; it starts very early, 

 grows rapidly, furnishing good early pasture, and ripens seed before the 

 hot test weather ; it is of little value as hay, and is not worth introducing 

 where the ordinary forage plants can be grown. The seed is seldom 

 sown, but the plant comes spontaneously each year from self-sown seed. 

 A few have begun its artificial propagation, and it is undoubtedly worthy 

 of introduction into other regions in the South and West having pro- 

 longed droughts ; it is hardy at the North, but makes a much smaller 

 growth there. 



Brewer and Watson, in " The Botany of California n say in regard 

 to it: 



Very common throughout the State, extending to British Columbia, New Mexico, 

 and Mexico; also widely distributed in South America and the Eastern Continent. 

 It has generally been considered an introduced species, but it is more decidedly 

 and widely at home throughout the interior than any other introduced plant, and 

 according to much testimony it was as common throughout California early in the 

 present century as now. It is popularly known as alfilaria, or less commonly as 

 pin clover and pin grass, and is a valuable and nutritious forage plant, reputed to 

 impart an excellent flavor to milk and butter. 



Prof. E. W. Hilgard, in an article on the Agriculture and Soils of 

 California, in the Report of the Department of Agriculture for 1878, 

 page 488, says: 



Two species of crane's-bill (Erodium cicutarium and moscliatum) are even more com- 

 mon here than in Southern Europe, and the first-named is esteemed as one of the 

 most important natural pasture plants, being about the only green thiug available 

 to stock throughout the dry season, and eagerly cropped by them at all times. Its 

 Spanish name of alfiler'illa (signifying a pin, and now frequently translated into 

 "pin weed") shows that it is an old citizen, even if possibly a naturalized one. 



Otanes F. Wright, Temescal, San Bernardino County k Cal. : 



Alfilaria grows plentifully and is native here. It is the best grass that we have 

 during the wet season while green, but does not amount to much when dry, for it 

 shrinks much in drying, and when dry breaks easily into very fine bits, almost to 

 dust. 



Alfilaria and bur clover nearly always grow together on the same land; cold 

 weather never kills either of them. Stock pick for the alfilaria while growing 

 (from January to June-), but after it dies they hunt for the clover-burs which are on 

 the ground, and in their efforts to get the burs they roll tho old dry stems into rolls, 

 sometimes as big UH windrows of hay. 



