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. graecwm Boiss. and Heldr. 
and P. bettardi 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, Phleum pratense L. (PI. 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. Gastriuium 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 : Milium 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. 
