48 FOEAGE CONDITIONS ON NOETHEEN E-ORDEE OF GEEAT BASIN. 



in low situations which are covered with water until late in the season. The hay 

 which it furnishes is rather light, but usually considered of fair quality for this class 

 'of plants. It may grow alone over considerable areas which dry in midsummer and 

 bake very hard, or it may be found with other closely related species and some 

 clovers. The latter, of course, very materially improve the quality of the hay. 

 (See also under Gay's sedge and Woolly sedge). 



Soft-leaved sedge (Carex tenella). — This slender-culmed species furnishes a great 

 deal of pasture in shady places in the mountains. 



Bottle sedge (Carex utriculata). — Common in moist meadows, where it is both 

 pastured and cut for hay. It was not collected in Nevada but was of considerable 

 importance on the meadows of Silvies Valley and the north fork of the Malheur 

 River, near Beulah, Oreg. 



miscellaneous. 



Etorkeliafusca.— This glandular, strong-scented plant with numerous compound root 

 leaves is an important sheep plant. It is very abundant in Steins Mountains and 

 almost invariably bears evidence of being grazed. Cattle, however, in all probability 

 never touch it. 



Prairie vetchlings (Lathyrus decaphyllus and L. Oregonensis) . — Grow very pro- 

 fusely in some localities and are to some extent found in hay in the Alvord Desert 

 basin. We saw no evidences of their being pastured, however. 



Dakota lotus (Lotus americana) . — This plant, so abundant on all the river bot- 

 toms and low prairies in the Plains region, was not encountered until we reached the 

 Snake River at Ontario, Oreg. Here it was very abundant and bore evidence of 

 being grazed in many of the poorer pastures. It is very seldom indeed that the 

 writer has seen this condition. Usually it, like the lupines, remains untouched in 

 pastures, although readily eaten in hay. 



Lupines. — These conspicuous blue-flowered plants, belonging to the pea family, are 

 very numerous and characteristic of the western plains, mountains, a ad even deserts. 

 They are usually considered of some value, and are therefore included here. It has 

 not been the writer's experience, however, that they are eaten much by cattle. 

 Sheep occasionally do eat them in poor pastures, but their destruction by the sheep 

 is due more to trampling than to actual eating. About ten species were collected, 

 two or three of which are very common, and might be mentioned in a list of forage 

 plants. The most important are Lujtinus lepedus and Lupinus laxiflorus. 



Bur-reed (Sparganum eurycarpum). — A broad-leaved grass-like plant with promi- 

 nent globular masses of fruit produced in late summer. This very common plant in 

 all the wet meadows of the regions is of more economic value here than in any locality 

 the writer has ever visited. It is often cut with the tule, sedges, and rushes for hay, 

 and is commonly pastured where stock can get at it during the summer. It was 

 especially abundant on the Malheur Lake bottoms where pure growths of it were 

 often found. The team in PI. XV, fig. 2, is standing in an area of this plant. 



Seaside arrow grass (Triglocliln maritima). — This salt-loving plant, with rush-like 

 leaves and stout, erect, naked flower stalks, furnishes much pasture and occasionally 

 a little hay along with the more valuable rushes and sedges. It is found only in 

 very moist alkaline regions, and is an invariable occupant of the saline regions in the 

 vicinity of hot springs. 



Cat-tail (Typhia latifolia). — This conspicuous and universally recognized swamp- 

 land plant furnishes much winter feed, and occasionally some of it is cut for hay. A 

 little of it is shown in the extreme foreground in PI. XV, fig. 1. 



American vetch (Vicia americana and V. truncata). — Are common and of some 

 value on portions of the drier, rich, lowland meadows. Like the vetchlings discussed 

 above, they are not pastured except where the sedges, grasses, and clovers fail. 



