38 HAY AND FODDER. 
yellow early in the season. Skunk-tail resembles: or- 
dinary Foxtail or Millet, but when the mature plant is 
once seen it will be always recognized by its longer 
slender awns which stand out conspicuously from the 
head giving a fancied resemblance to a skunk’s tail. 
The spike is jointed, each joint having three flowers, the 
centre one, only, fertile and producing a seed. The fruits, 
which it sheds by breaking at the joints, are each accom- 
panied by seven long, barbed awns in addition to the two 
small bristles to which the sterile flowers are reduced. 
The plant should never be allowed to seed, and great 
care should be taken not to feed hay which contains 
mature plants. When young it is harmless. 
The awns of Common Barley, Little Barley, Hordeum 
secalinum Schreb., and Wild Barley, Hordeum murinum 
L., produce the same effects to a lesser degree. 
Related These plants are closely related to Skunk- 
Harmful f 
Sisson: tail Grass. The two latter are weeds trouble 
some in the West. 
LILY FAMILY—Liliaceae. 
SWAMP CAMAS--Zygadenus elegans, Pursh. 
Other Common Names: Smooth Camas, Cow-grass, 
Green Lily. 
Owing to its coarseness, this species is not eaten by 
grazing animals to so great an extent as the Death Camas, 
described later among poisonous pasture 
apie ge plants (p. 50). It is equally poisonous, 
ener however, and western farmers have need 
= to be cautious in cutting hay from wet 
meadows where it grows, for its seeds, which contain 
most of the poisonous substance, are usually mature at 
