FORAGE PLANTS. 53 



Meadow baeley (Hordeum nodosum). — The bearded fruits of this are probably 

 not injurious to stock which eat it; at least no positive records are at hand of its 

 doing any injury in this way. It enters into the composition of the hay very largely 

 in many native meadows. Among shrubbery on the bottom it makes a very tall 

 growth, and in such localities, where the mower can not be used, it enters largely into 

 the composition of the winter pastures. 



Seaside barley (Hordeum maritimum) and Wall barley (Hordeum murinum) 

 are shorter lived than the other two species and are therefore of less value. They 

 furnish some pasture early in the season, but usually are as little prized as the slender 

 fescue. 



Prairie june grass (Koleria cristata). — This is distinctly a mountain grass in this 

 region. It usually grows to best advantage in the rich soils of rocky gulch sides, 

 where it often forms from one-eighth to one-sixth of the pasturage. 



Bulbous melic grass (Melica bella) . — A very common species with a bulbous base 

 resembling that of the common cultivated timothy. It is never very abundant, but 

 grows rather sparingly among mountain shrubbery, where it furnishes good, although 

 limited, pasturage. 



Muhlenbergias (Muhlenbergia comata and M. sylvatica). — Common along streams 

 in protected places and along irrigating ditches, and furnish a limited quantity of 

 pasturage. 



Reed meadow grass (Panicularia americana) . — A swamp-land species which occa- 

 sionally furnishes a little hay, but which is of most value as a pasture grass. It is 

 abundant along the Malheur River and its tributaries. 



Manna grass ( Panicularia pauciflora) . — More of a mountain form than the former 

 species. It is always present in wet, rich soil, along streams. In the White Horse 

 and Pine Forest mountains it was especially abundant. 



Barnyard grass (Panicum crus-galli and the variety muticum). — While common 

 in wet and waste places all through the region, it was nowhere so abundant as on the 

 Harper ranch, 40 miles above Ontario, Oreg., on the Malheur River. It was con- 

 sidered a bad weed here because it had taken possession of a first-year field of alfalfa. 

 PI. XVI, fig. 1, shows a volunteer crop of it in this vicinity. The failure was evi- 

 dently not caused by the development of this grass, but was due in the largest 

 measure to overirrigation, water having stood on a portion of the field for from two to 

 five days, according to reports. This furnished just the condition necessary for the 

 growth of this grass, and at the same time one which was fatal to the alfalfa. The 

 lower areas in this field yielded at least 2 tons of dry hay per acre of this grass. 



Reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) . — A tall, handsome, lowland species, 

 often called wild timothy. It is frequent all through the region, but apparently of 

 little importance as a hay grass. It furnishes some pasture among the tule patches 

 and sedges and rushes on the lower bottoms. 



Mountain timothy (Phleum alpinum) . — This is a very valuable grass, differing but 

 little in ordinary appearance from the common cultivated species, except in size. It 

 furnishes a great deal of pasture in the moist mountain meadows all through the 

 region. 



Reed grass {Phragmites vulgaris). — This was found in but one locality, and that 

 along Bartlett Creek, some distance up the mountains from the upper end of the 

 Black Rock Desert. 



Buckley's blue grass {Poa buckleyana) . — This common " bunch" grass is one of 

 the most important native pasture species. It grows from the lower foot hills to the 

 mountains and furnishes pasture much earlier than the fescues of the higher elevations. 

 No distinction appears to be made here between these two grasses, both the blue 

 grasses and the fescues being designated by the term "bunch grass." It grows 

 almost pure on the lower elevations, but higher up it is mixed with the smooth form 

 of sheep fescue. 



