Colorado Plants Injurious to Livestock 21 
ows, and in fields wet from seepage. It is a common sight in Colo¬ 
rado to see ponds and lakes surrounded by a well-marked zone of 
squirrel-tail. Squirrel-tail grows over the entire state up to as high 
as 9,000 feet. 
The plant is not only troublesome as a weed in cultivated fields 
but it is a great source of injury to stock. Although it may be eaten 
by all classes of stock when young, when mature the awns have very 
injurious effects. 
Wind is the chief agent in the dissemination of the seed, but in 
the irrigated sections, its spread by water is common. Plants growing 
on the banks of irrigating ditches drop their seed into the running 
water, which carries them to fields where they are distributed over the 
land. Every precaution should be made to prevent the seeding of 
squirrel-tail along ditches- If possible, mow the infested area sev¬ 
eral times during the season to prevent seeding. 
Mechanical injury from grasses .—As a group, the mechanically 
injurious grasses frequently inflict serious wounds. The beards may 
bore into the skin, or the mucous membrane of the mouth, causing 
ulcerations. They have been known to bore into the intestines, caus¬ 
ing fatal inflammation. The beards of Stipa grasses are reported as 
injuring the eyes of sheep. Sheep have also been known to die from 
body wounds inflicted by the beards of grasses. In some instances 
the beards work in under the teeth causing inflammation and the 
formation of pus. As a result, the animal may lose its teeth. Ulcer¬ 
ations of the jaw bones sometimes follow. 
DEATH CAMAS (Zygadenus) 
There are several species of death camas growing within Colo¬ 
rado. The following description is made general enough to include 
all of them. There is no attempt to distinguish between the different 
sorts, for such a distinction is of no advantage, in this case, to the 
practical man. 
The plants are perennial from a bulb (fig. 13). This bulb is 
made up of a series of layers, like the onion, the outer ones being 
thin, blackish-brown, and peeling off, showing the white-colored lay¬ 
ers beneath. The bulbs are, as a rule, very deep-seated, so much so 
that it is difficult to get them up without breaking the stem. An aver¬ 
age size bulb is about i to 1% inches long and ^ to i inch thick. It 
tapers above into the solid stem. A tuft of roots arises from the 
under ^ide. Plants vary in height from 8 inches to 2 feet. They are 
smooth throughout, no hairs or bristles being present. The leaves 
are long. narro\y, and more or less folded along the midrib; they re- 
'^emble those of the onion. There are usually 6 to 7 fully formed 
leaves on a plant. The flowers are at the tip of the stem, in an inflor- 
Cjscence a to 10 inches long; they are greenish-yellow or whitish in^ 
color. Each flower (fig. 15) has 6 segments, about U inch long; at 
<be b^se of ^ach segment on the inner surface is a golden yellow, shin¬ 
ing gland, which may be seen without the aid of a hand lens: The 
Jowermosti flowers mature their fruit first, in fact there may be flowers 
