42 BULLETIN 545, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



slopes in a soil with the average amount of moisture. 1 While it 

 seldom grows pure, it is common enough in mixture with grasses of 

 various kinds to give character to the range. 



Flower stalks appear from about the latter part of the second week 

 in July until August 5. Matured seeds are found as early as August 

 1, while the major part of the crop is matured by about August 25. 

 Though the seed crop is ripened early the vitality is not high. The 

 average germination obtained in 1908 and 1909 was 3 and 13.5 per 

 cent, respectively. 



Since wild buckwheat inhabits comparatively dry situations, it 

 resumes growth early in the spring and by July 15 has produced an 

 abundance of leafy herbage which is greedily eaten by sheep. After 

 about the last 10 days in August, when the leaves begin to dry up, 

 the plant is no longer relished. In many places where the natural 

 reseeding experiments are being conducted good reproduction of this 

 species has been secured. It withstands trampling remarkably well, 

 and is promising as a plant for the revegetation of depleted ranges 

 under a system of deferred grazing. The nutritive qualities of wild 

 buckwheat are generally considered to be high. 



^GERANIUM. 

 (Geranium viscosissimum.) 



Geranium belongs to the same family as the well-known alfileria 

 or "filaree," which is so valuable for grazing in certain sections of the 

 country. It is a coarse, much branched, and leafy species (Plate 

 XL), from 1 to 2 feet high. Both the branches and the upper side 

 of the leaves are covered with fine hairs ; the leaves are long petioled, 

 large and thick, deeply three-parted; the petals pink or purple, 

 sometimes fading to barely white. The root is very coarse and tough, 

 and rather deep, but not branching. 



In the Transition zone this plant is sufficiently abundant to be of 

 considerable value for grazing, and is nearly as common in the 

 Canadian zone, occupying open glades and parks and canyon bot- 

 toms and hillsides, in medium moist, preferably gravelly, loam soils 

 rather rich in humus. It rarely grows in dense stand, but in favor- 

 able situations is often conspicuous, especially during the flowering 

 period. It is usually associated with Indian paint brush (Castilleja) 

 and yarrow (Achillea). 



The flowering period extends over approximately one month. On 

 the lower ranges it is among the first of the perennial plants to bloom. 



1 In determining the water requirenents of this species, it was almost impossible to obtain reliable data 

 by the methods used because of the deep "taproot" which, if only slightly injured, would result in death 

 to the plant within a few hours. An average of all tests attempted showed that it was unable to absorb 

 water at a rate sufficient to reestablish turgidity from the soil in which it grows when the content was 

 reduced to between 8 and 10 per cent. Judging from the species with which it is associated and the habitat 

 in which it grows, these figures appear to be spmwha.t high. 



