456 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1426 



ley, superintendent of the Newlands Experiment 

 Farm, Fallon, Nevada, which, he collected at 

 that place in August, 1921. Mr. Headley re- 

 ports that the plant is becoming very abundant 

 ia that section, but that it has not yet invaded 

 fields of growing crops on good soil, so that it 

 may not prove to be a serious pest. It makes 

 a rank growth on soil which is too alkaline for 

 the usual cultivated crops, and is found in fields 

 which have received no irrigation as well as in 

 those which have been frequently irrigated. 

 Additional specimens have recently been re- 

 ceived at the U. S. National Herbarium col- 

 lected by Professor H. M. HaU (No. 11751) at 

 Los Baiios, Merced County, California, Octo- 

 ber 10, 1921, and by EKas Nelson (No. 1002) 

 at Yakima, Washington, October 3, 1921. Mr. 

 Nelson reports that this plant has appeared 

 during the past five years in the Yakima Val- 

 ley, where it is spreading, and that it is eaten 

 greedily by stock. 



Bassia hyssopifolia is an annual, with much 

 the habit of Chenopodium album. The flowers 

 are glomerulate in the axUs of small bracts, 

 and are borne in short or elongate slender 

 paniculately arranged wooUy spikes, at first 

 usually dense, later elongate and interrupted. 

 Each of the five perianth segments at maturity 

 bears on its back a spine incurved into a hook. 



A second weed which apparently has not 

 been reported from this country is Centaurea 

 picris Pall., also a native of the Caucasus. 

 Specimens were first reeived in May, 1921, from 

 Ml'. C. 0. Townsend, who reported that the 

 plant was said to be a bad weed in the vicinity 

 of Salt Lake Citj'. Specimens from Idaho 

 Falls, Idaho, collected by Miss Ayres of the 

 Idaho Seed Laboratory, have been forwarded 

 during the past year to Mr. E. Brown of the 

 United States Department of Agrieultui-e by 

 Miss Anna M. Lute of the Colorado Seed La- 

 boratory. Miss Ayres reports that the plant 

 is becoming a serious pest in some parts of 

 Idaho. The species has also been collected dur- 

 ing the past year at Clifton, Kansas, by Mr. 

 J. W. Head. Mrs. E. P. Harling of the Kan- 

 sas State Agricultural College, who has in- 

 vestigated this oeeun-ence, believes that the 

 species may have been introduced in Tui'kestan 



alfalfa seed. The only North American speci- 

 men in the National Herbariimi is one collected 

 at Courtney, Missouri, in 1914, by B. F. Bush 

 (No. 7152). 



Centaurea picris is one of the knapweeds or 

 star-thistles of the Old World, niunbering 

 several hundred species, some of which have be- 

 come weeds in this country, while a few others 

 are cultivated for their flowers or foliage. It 

 is a several-stemmed perennial, somewhat to- 

 mentose or glabrate, with pinnatifld or dentate 

 lower leaves, smaller and entire upper ones, 

 and rosy or pink medium-sized discoid heads, 

 and is especially characterized among the 

 species known from this country by its in- 

 volucral characters. The phyllaries are round- 

 ish to oblong, with greenish bases and scarious 

 whitish obtuse to acuminate entii-e or subentire 

 appendages, those of the inner phyllaries some- 

 what pUose. 



It is evident that both of these plants find in 

 the arid alkaline regions of the West a habitat 

 similar to that of their Old World home, and 

 unless measures are taken for their destruction, 

 they may become serious pests, as has been the 

 case in recent years with such plants as the 

 "Russian thistle" (Salsola pestifer) and the 

 prickly lettuce (Lactuca scariola inteffrata). 



S. F. Blake 

 BuBEAU OF Plant Indtjstbt, 

 Washington, D. C. 



CAT-TAIL (TYPHA LATIFOLIA) AS A FEED 



Experiments conducted on the writer's farm 

 demonstrate the practical value of cat-tail as 

 a feed for hogs. Sixty head were turned into 

 a three-acre cat-tail swamp, and obtained suf- 

 ficient nutriment from the rhizomes to keep 

 them in good flesh for thi-ee months. No ill- 

 ness or digestive disturbance was noted. 



The following table compares yellow (raw) 

 corn with cat-tail flour, as analyzed by J. A. 

 Le Clerc : 



iloisture 



Ash : 0.! 



Fat 



Protein 7.! 



Carbohydrate 



The large amount of food material contained 



