27 
SALTBUSHES AND THEIR ALLIES IN THE UNITED STATES 
it will take possession of fields when the planted crop has not 
had enough water to make it grow. Under such conditions the 
Russian thistle has been the only crop taken off the ground in many 
places (fig. 1). If cut at the right stage, livestock eat. it freely 
in the winter as hay, when it is much better than nothing. It has 
also been made into silage. It remains to be s:en whether the native 
grasses in the Great Plains region can displace Russian thistle from 
land that has been plowed and then allowed to go back to its original 
condition. 
SARCOBATUS VERMICULATUS (Hook.) Torr. 
Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Pl. IX, fig. 3) is the well-known grease- 
wood of the Great Basin region. The true greasewood is a “shrub, 
usually 4 to 8 feet high, but ‘often 10 feet high or more when grow- 
ing as single bushes in favorable places. The 1 rigid stems are whitish, 
with papery bark on the younger branches, which grow nearly at 
right angles to the main stems and almost always end in a sharp 
point. The leaves are an inch long or less and cylindrical, usually 
about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, succulent, pale yellowish- 
green, and smooth. The pale color of the stems and leaves and the 
lack of odor of the plant at once distinguish it from the creosote 
bush, to which the name greasewood is applied from western Texas 
across southern New Mexico and ‘Arizona to California. The creo- 
sote bush is dark brownish-green, with black stems, and two-part 
resinous leaves. 
Greasewood grows only on alkaline soils. In New Mexico and 
Arizona, where it is sometimes called chico, it is usually found at 
levels of 5,500 feet or more. In the Great Basin region it often 
occupies large areas where the soil is alkaline. 
Department sample 8355 (G) consists of plants in early bloom, 
the growth of the year, which had been so closely gr azed that it 
was hard to get enough for a sample, collected along ‘the river bot- 
toms at Winslow, Ariz., June, 1906. Department sample 8583 (G) 
consists of 6-inch tips of branches, possibly including some growth 
of previous years, collected at Tempe, Ariz., September 24. 1906. 
| Composition (water-free basis) 
Sample Moisture | ‘ 
Ach Ether Crude Mitogen Protdi Pento- 
| extract | fiber race sans 
Per cent | Per cent | Percent | Per cent | Per cent | Percent | Per cent 
Department 8355 (G)_________- | 6. 2 17. 4 ied 15.9 42.4 22.6 14. 4 
Department 8583 (G)__________ 6.7 21.0 Sh 16. 0 38. 9 20. 6 lis} 3! 
FANT AOTION (Se eee eee ewe 4.6 lay 1 2.6 25. 6 35. 9 205 872 Sees 
AMOTAC Cine poe teed 5.8 17.8 2.6 19. 2 39. 1 21.3) | ee 
| 
S. vermiculatus constitutes the greater part of the stock food in 
its distribution area on the alkaline soil in the Great Basin region. 
Sheep and cattle eat the succulent young branches and leaves freely, 
although it is said that sheep suffer from bloat if they are allowed 
too free access to the plants at certain stages of growth. 
