GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 141 



Mountain timothy produces a fair amount of nutritious forage, 

 which remains green till late in the season and is considered a valu- 

 able late sheep feed. It is an important constituent of mountain 

 meadows. This species is distinguished from common timothy by the 

 shorter, broader heads and by the absence of the swollen base of the 

 stem or so-called bulb. Two species, P. graecum Boiss. and Heldr. 

 and P. bellardi Willd., are annuals introduced from Europe and 

 found here only at a few coast points on dumping grounds for ballast. 



The fourth species is timothy, PHlewn pratense L. (PL XIV; fig. 

 77), an erect, short-lived perennial, 2 to 4 feet tall, with elongate 

 cylindric inflorescences or " heads " several times longer than broad. 

 The stems are swollen at the base, and the glumes, like those of moun- 

 tain timothy, are ciliate on the keel. Timothy, a native of Europe 

 and northern Asia, is now commonly cultivated in this country and 

 in Europe as a meadow grass, and is found growing without culti- 

 vation in waste places, roadsides, and old fields throughout most of 

 the United States. It is the most important meadow grass grown in 

 America, and timothy hay is the standard for all grass hay sold on 

 the market. The region of the United States favorable for the grow- 

 ing of timothy is the crop area known as the cool humid region, which 

 includes the northeastern portion west to the Great Plains and south 

 to Virginia and Missouri, or farther in the mountains. Another 

 timothy area is found on the Pacific coast from northern California 

 to Puget Sound. Much timothy is grown in favorable localities in 

 the western mountains. In some localities timothy is known as herd's- 

 grass. 



See Evans, U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bull. 502, 1912; McClure, 

 U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bull. 508, 1912; Williams, U. S. Dept. 

 Agr. Yearbook, 1896: 147, 1897; Scribner, U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. 

 Agrost. Bull. 20: fig. 47. 1900. 



65. GASTRIDIUM Beauv. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above the glumes, 

 prolonged behind the palea as a minute bristle ; glumes unequal, some- 

 what enlarged or swollen at the base ; lemma much shorter than the 

 glumes, hyaline, broad, truncate, awned or awnless; palea about as 

 long as the lemma. 



Annual grasses, with flat blades and pale, shining, spikelike pan- 

 icles. Species two, in the Mediterranean region ; one introduced into 

 the United States. 



Type species : M ilium lendigerum L. 



Gastridium Beauv., Ess. Agrost. 21, pi. 6, f. 6. 1812. Beauvois mentions 

 only one species, Milium lendigerum, but the description of the plate bears the 

 name Gastridium australe. 



