6 BULLEXIX .54r5. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Hordeae. 
A S pikelet s - ] litary at each joint of the rachis Genus Agrojt \ 
Spikelets 2 r more at each joint of the rachis. 
B. Rachis ntinuous. awns erect, not over 2 cm. f of an inch long. 
Genus E~ 
B. Rachis readily separated into joints, awns spreading. 4 cm. If inches or more 
long Genus Sitanion . 
Mountain* Bunch Grass. 
Festuca ciridula.) 
The genus Festuca is well represented in the United States, about 
30 native species being recognized. 1 Most of them are abundant in 
the regions to which they are adapted, though three species have 
been collected but once, two others but twice, and another species. 
F. rigescens, has been found but once in North America. 
Several North American species of Festuca are of great value for 
ige and hay. Among these, mountain bunch, grass, while not as 
widely distributed as some others, for example, blue bunch grass 
F. idahoensis . is nevertheless the most valuable for grazing pur- 
poses because of its greater palatability and nutritiousness. Xext 
in forage value are blue bunch grass F. idahoensis) and red fescue 
F. rubra . of the West, and F. dltaica, an important range plant in 
Alaska. A number of the annuals are valuable for grazing purposes 
in the semiarid regions, especially hi the foothill areas of the South- 
west, where the seed germinates late in the fall and growth contin- 
ues through the winter. Under such conditions they often furnish 
a first-Glass palatable forage at a time when nothing else is available. 
While mountain bunch grass is usually abundant in the localities 
m which it occurs, it has not a very wide distribution. Its natural 
home is in the Hudsonian zone, where it occurs from the lower to 
the higher limits, reaching well up to timber line. Wherever found 
in the United States it is closely restricted to the higher elevations. 
On the Wallowa National Forest in northeastern Oregon, it is seldom 
found below 6,500 feet. Of all the specimens examined in the Na- 
tional Herbarium the lowest altitude reported was 5.000 feet. 
While stockmen usually recognize the species when they see it. 
and appreciate its forage value, it is sometimes confused with other 
grasses, perhaps most commonly with blue bunch grass F. idah • ■> r sis . 
The latter, however, is distinctly a plant of the Transition zone and 
- s Idom found where mountain bunch grass abounds. The rather 
prominent awns and the '•bloom" on the leaves, which give- the 
characteristic bluish tinge, readily distinguish blue bunch grass from 
F. uiridula. 
Piper. Comr B X Berl 
