ABSTRACTS OF PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE, ISSUED IN 1889. 



PART II. 



DIVISION OF BOTANY. 



BULLETIN No. 8, FEP.KITARY, 1SS9. 

 A RECORD OF SOME OF THE WORK OF THE DIVISION (pp. 67). PaRT 



I, Br Dr. George Vasey. 



Grass experiment stations (pp. 9-16). — The first of the grass ex- 

 l^eriment stations jDrovided for by Congress has been located at 

 Garden City, Kans., upon 160 acres of prairie land leased free to the 

 Government for five years. Dr. J. A. Sewall, of Denver, Colo., is 

 the director of the station. The experiments in progress are pri- 

 marily to ascertain Avhat plants are best adapted for cultivation for 

 grazing purposes on the 76,000,000 acres of arid plains in Eastern 

 (Colorado, Western Kansas and Nebraska, and Southern Wyoming. 

 This article contains a list and short descriptions of some of the 

 grasses which will be experimented with. 



Notes on grasses (pp. 16, 17). — A short account of the common 

 grasses of the prairies. The most abundant and widely spread ones 

 are Stipa spartea (2:)orcupine grass), Fanicum virgatum^ Kceleria 

 cristata^ Andropogon prorineialis (blue stem), and Andropogon 

 seoparius. 



Botanical notes (pjD. 18, 10). — Extracts from correspondence, giv- 

 ing accounts of several newly reported weeds, and some grasses not 

 previously supposed to be of economic imj^ortance. 



The genus Panicum in the United States (pp. 20-39). — A revision, 

 with technical descriptions and notes on geographical distribution, 

 of the sixty-four species of this genus of grasses in the United States. 



Part II, by B. T. Galloway. 



Some diseases of plants (pp. 45-67). — This contains papers on 

 l^otato scab, gum disease of the orange, fungi of Missouri, and extracts 

 from correspondence relative to the following diseases and their treat- 

 ment : black rot of the grape, apple scab and rust, pear blight, melon 

 rust, anthracnose of the bean, etc. 

 168 



