IMPORTANT RANGE PLANTS. 45 



The leafless flower stalks begin to show about the second week in 

 July, and are nearly all developed during the succeeding four weeks. 

 The seed crop matures, on the average, from about August 15 to 

 September 10, and is disseminated immediately afterward. 



The seed has low viability. In 1907 and in the two succeeding 

 seasons a germination of 2, 6, and 11.5 per cent was obtained. 

 The plant, especially the fruiting parts, is very sensitive to frost, 

 which may account in part for the low viability of the seed, since 

 after August 15 frosts are frequent in the situations where it grows. 

 Reproduction is taking place sparingly on the range in general, and 

 even on the allotments that are in process of reseeding under deferred 

 grazing. 



Wild celery may be utilized quite as early for grazing purposes as 

 the majority of the grasses, and furnishes ideal feed for sheep from 

 July 20 to August 25. Horses sometimes eat it, though only to a 

 limited extent. Unlike most plants, it is eaten with quite as much 

 relish late in the season as early in the summer. After about August 

 25 it is not valuable for forage, the leaves being killed by frost, 

 leaving only the naked flower stalk. 



SKUXKWEED. 

 (Polemonium pulcherrimum.) 



Skunkweed, so called because the plant has an odor somewhat 

 suggestive of a skunk, is a fine hairy plant from 4 to 8 inches in 

 height, with sparingly branched slender stems. The leaves are basal 

 and compound, the oblong leaflets numbering from 7 to 15 or even 

 more. The corolla of the clustered flowers is blue, turning very 

 pale or nearly white before dropping. The root system is exception- 

 ally superficial and spreading (Plate XLIII). The plant grows in 

 tuftlike patches of shoots arising from creeping rootstocks. If a 

 single plant is pulled from the ground in a loose soil most of the 

 lateral roots, as well as the main root, come up with it. 



Skunkweed is confined almost exclusively to the Hudsonian zone. 

 While it often produces a conspicuous and luxuriant growth in the 

 open, it prefers the somewhat diffuse light of open forest lands. In 

 exposed situations, where the soil type is relatively coarse in texture, 

 the plant does not succumb from excessive transpiration until the 

 soil-water content is reduced to 7 per cent, and in protected situa- 

 tions, where the soil texture is rather fine, death due to wilting comes 

 when the water content is reduced to 10 per cent. 



The flowers begin to open during the second week in July and 

 bloom throughout August, though after the middle of the month 

 most have expanded. About August 20 the seeds begin to ripen, 

 and this continues as long as the season is favorable. The seed crop 



