305 
is near by and under foot. The sheep-like world follows the 
leader until a chance observation reveals the proximate fact, and 
then every one wonders why every one had not seen it before. 
From my first introduction to buffalo, about twelve years ago, 
and without personal knowledge of the plant in its original mon- 
ecious form, but knowing that such a form existed, I was led to 
doubt the correctness of Dr. Engelmann’s conclusion that it is 
teally a dicecious grass. The presumption of doubt strengthened 
when I found an individual plant bearing both staminate and pis- 
tillate flowers. Further experience confirmed my strong notion 
into what may be considered to be a fact. 
During one of my botanical rambles in Kansas, while walk- 
ing over soil newly moved by a freshet, I noticed the peculiar 
appearance of the individual plants of buffalo grass growing upon 
it. There were scores of them, if not hundreds. All of them ap- 
peared to be seedlings, having yet not sent out stolons. All of 
these plants were moncecious. That seems to be sexually the 
original character of the species. The fact of the unisexual flow- 
ering stems, proceeding from different parts of the plants, with 
its stoloniferous character generally increasing and spreading in 
that way, will fully account for its dicecious habit. 
The facts of the rapid disappearance of the species with the 
advent of civilization and agriculture, the paucity of pistillate 
Plants, and that the pistillate form, like the staminate one, is sel- 
dom, if ever, found growing singly, can now be easily explained. 
The Staminate stolons are much stronger than the pistillate ones, 
so that they easily outgrow and overrun the others, becoming 
sometimes two to five or more feet long. There are probably a 
thousand individuals of the staminate form to one of the pistil- 
late. The few large seeds are eagerly sought by animals. They 
are often, too, destroyed by a beetle. Seed-bearing individuals 
being thus easily destroyed, few seeds remain for reproduction, 
and much of that which remains only aids in giving the stronger 
form more chance in the race of life. So when either form is de- 
Stroyed its destruction is complete. 
If carefully conducted experiments in grow! 
falo grass from its seed should show that the plants before they 
Send out stolons are always, or generally, dicecious, which cannot 
ng plants of buf- 
