IMPORTANT RANGE PLANTS. 11 
about 1 inch long, instead of being cylindrical and having short awns 
on the glumes like the cultivated species, is elhpsoid or ovate-oblong, 
the awns about the length of the glumes. 
Like the cultivated species, mountain timothy is a perennial plant 
and has the sheaths of the upper portion of the leafy culms loose as 
compared with the lower ones. The spikelike panicle is usually 
purple in color, and the glumes of the spikelets are slightly fringed on 
the back. 
Mountain timothy is confined to alpine and sub alpine regions. In 
the region studied it is closely restricted to the Hudsonian zone. It 
is a plant of turfy habit, growing in moist meadows and swales, 
around springs, and along banks of streams. Often the stands are 
dense and pure. In some places, however, the keenest competition 
exists between the mountain timothy and certain sedges and rushes, 
the result being that one species predominates here and another there. 
Since it grows characteristically in boggy or nearly saturated soils, 
mountain timothy wilts beyond recovery even though there may be a 
rather high percentage of moisture in the substratum. The five 
specimens tested for drought resistance persisted only until the water 
content was decreased to an average of 14 per cent. 
The flower stalks are produced later than those of vegetation in 
drier situations, since the moister soils are slower in warming up in 
the spring. Usually the stalks begin to appear about July 15, and 
are all produced by the end of the first week in August. Mature seeds 
can generally be found after August 15, and continue to ripen until 
about the middle of September. 
The fertility of the seed crop is considerably above the average for 
a typical subalpine herbaceous plant. The average per cent for all 
tests was 69.5, the maximum germination of 76 being obtained in 
1909 and the minimum of 58.2 in 1907. 
When compared with the average marsh or bog species, mountain 
timothy ranks high as a forage plant. Early in the summer it is 
considered by stockmen to be a bit too succulent or "washy," but 
since sheep naturally avoid its habitat, which is invariably moist at 
that season, there is little demand for it then. As the season ad- 
vances, however, the soil becomes drier, and the latter part of the 
summer this grass is grazed with relish. Mountain timothy remains 
green and tender unusually late in the fall, and, compared with other 
species grazed at that time of the year, it is eaten with unusual relish. 
Slender Reed-Grass. 
{Cinna latifolia.) 
The genus Cinna is represented by but three species in the United 
States. Of these, slender reed-grass {Cinna latifolia) is the most 
important in the localities studied. 
