94 NATIVE GRASSES OF NORTHERN MEXICO. 



of these territories have reached anything like the real possibilities 

 of the soil and climate. 



Sereno Watson, a very careful observer who has spent much 

 time in the Basin, makes a long report in the United States Geo- 

 logical Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. He observes that 

 the climate is characterized by a very dry atmosphere, small 

 amount of rain and snow, by a cold winter and a correspondingly 

 hot summer. No portion of this whole district is destitute of 

 some vegetation, even in the driest seasons, excejoting only the 

 alkali plats. The vegetation possesses a monotonous sameness of 

 aspect, and is characterized mainly by the absence of trees, by 

 the want of a grassy greensward, the wide distribution of a few 

 low shrubs, and by the universally prevalent gray or dull olive 

 color of the herbage. 



The turfing ''buffalo" or "grama" grasses, which make the 

 plains east of the Eocky Mountains a vast pasture for the bison, 

 deer, and anteloj)e, are here unknown. The grass grows in 

 sparsely scattered tufts, dying away with the early summer heat. 

 The two or three species that mat into a sward are confined to 

 alkaline meadows and are nearly worthless for pasturage. 



Native Grasses of Northern Mexico. — During the summer 

 of 1885, C. G. Pringle collected and studied the flora of this 

 country, mainly in the Mexican State, Chihuahua. By request 

 he has furnished full notes, from which the following are taken: 



With respect to the cultivated species, I think I shall surprise 

 you by declaring that though I botanized carefully in the irrigated 

 and tilled valleys as well as on the plains, and on the hills and 

 mountains of every geological formation in that State, and from 

 the beginning to the end of the season, I saw not a single plant 

 of the exotic grasses commonly cultivated in the United States ; 

 not a stalk of Phleum 2)ratense (Timothy), nor Poa pratensis 

 (June grass), nor Agrostis vulffaris (red-top), nor any other whose 



