29 



Meadow-grasses {Panicnlar'm)^ Bhie-joiuts ( Galamagrostis), Hair-grasses 



{Deschampsia), and Bent grasses (Agrostis). 



{D The Spear-Grasses {Poa species). — The Spear-grasses, of which 

 :here are many valuable species, are most abundant in the hills 

 and mountains and along water courses, but they are not absent 

 even in the desert. In looking over the large list of species 

 secured and the held notes upon them, I find myself unable to fix 

 upon any one as preeminently the most promising or valuable. 

 Some have a wide and general distribution, but are of scattering 

 growth. Others, more local, grow luxuriantly, and for their par- 

 ticular localities stand first. All must be reckoned as pasture 

 grasses of first importance. Some are meadow grasses of impor- 

 tance, especially in native meadows, but for cultivation for hay 

 greater returns can probably be secured from other kinds of 

 grasses. Among those of very general distribution may be men- 

 tioned Bunch-grass (2'oa bneklcydna), Alkali Blue-grass (P. ./w/ici- 

 folia), Smooth Bunch-grass {P. laevigata Scribn.), Wood-Meadow 

 grass (P. nemoralis L.), Kentucky Blue-grass {P.pratensis L.). The 

 last mentioned is undoubtedly native in a large part of the North- 

 west. In many native meadows and pastures, along water courses, 

 and in the foothills it forms an important part of the sod, and occa- 

 sionally makes quite a rank growth. Among the more local but 

 very valuable Spear-grasses are Western Blue-grass [Poa arida 

 Vasey), Fowl Meadow-grass {P.Jlava L.), Shiny Bunch-grass (P. 

 Incida Vasey), Sheldon's Blue grass [P. sheldoniVsksey), Mountain 

 Meadow-grass (P. rejiexa Vasey & Scribn.), and Wyoming Blue- 

 grass (P. whceleri Vasey). Of these last P. slieldoni appeared the 

 most promising, as seen in the field. It is one of the most impor- 

 tant grasses of this range, forming a large percentage of the forage 

 on the park meadows among the hills. It is freely eaten by stock 

 and vseems to hold its own under the severest pasturing. 



(2) The Brome-G-rasses [Bromus). — The several species of this genus 

 are hardly thought of as pasture grasses on account of their rank 

 growth. Some of the mountain species, however, are valuable as 

 summer forage, while they are also plants of great i)romise for 

 meadows. Some of the species are well known and have been suc- 

 cessfully introduced into many localities. It seems possible, how- 

 ever, that the best are yet to be introduced. Of the eight species 

 collected in the area under consideration, a form common in the 

 Sierra Madre Mountains and their westward extension on the Col- 

 orado-Wyoming line seemed by far the most promising: 



Large Mountain Brome Grass {Bromus multiform Scribn.). — 

 This is a most striking grass, one that attracts attention at once 

 in a region where fine grasses are the rule. This is the grass that 

 characterizes the locality. To the general observer this would be 

 recalled as the grass not only peculiar to but distinctive of the 

 region. The miners think of it as the feed that their horses sub- 



