70 AGROSTIDEAE 



As widely distributed a species of the genus as any, 

 and certainly as much named as any (it has been named three 

 times by different authors) is Miihlefibergia inonticola 

 Buckley, which grows in the dry rocky canons or on ledges of 

 cliffs in the mountains. It is a wiry grass forming tufts four 

 or five inches in diameter of slender tough culms and 

 numerous, very narrow leaves. The panicle is strict though 

 the pedicels are of some length and the awns tipping the small 

 light purlish spikelets are half an inch or more long. It is 

 more often referred to in the books as Miihlenhergia neo— 

 mexicana Vasey, but the name given above was the first 

 tenable one given it and must therefore be used. While widely 

 scattered and relatively common, appearing as it probably 

 does in practically every mountain range in the State, it is 

 nevertheless of small economic imj)ortance. The author has 

 rarely seen specimens of the species showing the effects of crop- 

 ping or grazing of any kind, and has been led to believe that 

 stock do not care for it to amount to anything. 



Mesouite Grass {Muhlcnbergia porteri, also improp- 

 erly called M. tcxana in some of the books) is a common grass 

 in the southern part of the State where it is to be found on 

 the mesas growing in the prc^tection of the mesquite bushes 

 or other thorny shrubs. It is a much branched and leafy 

 plant, often forming a mass of stems and leaves 18 inches to 

 2 feet in diameter, the lower ]\-irts of flie slender stems resting 

 on the ground. The stems are at least partly perennial and 

 in the spring it is not uncommon to tind the new growth com- 

 ing on the lower parts of the stems of the previous year that 

 have wintered over. Stock like the grass verv much and 

 searcli for it among tlie buslies. In this w^av it is being 

 gradually exterminated (as is the case with other first class 

 forage plants of the open range) and is rarely found out of 

 the protection of some spiny shrub. It is extremely drought 

 resistant, and grows where many i^tlier grasses cannot. Cul- 

 tivation experiments wnth this species have not yet been carried 

 on, but it is doubtful whether or not it propagates much from 

 seed. 



