REPORT SUPERINTENDENT OP GARDENS AND GROUNDS. 359 



much shorter than the flowers, which are somewhat distant from each 

 other; bothpalets are strongly fringed, the lower one 2-cleft at the sum- 

 mit, with its mid-rib extended into a short awn. 

 This grass apparently has little practical value. 



Aristida purpurea — Purple Awned gi'ass. 



There are many species of this genus, most of which grow iu dry 

 sandy or barren soils, and are of little or no agricultural value. 



The species which we figure, Aristida purpiireu, is one which grows 

 west of the Mississippi Eiver, and is common and in many places a,bun- 

 dant on the plains of Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas. 



It is an annual grass, li to 3 feet high, with slender culms, much 

 branched from the base, and short, involute leaves. The panicle is G to 

 8 inches long, rather narrow, and when in flower having a graceful, 

 plume-like look from the spreading of the long purple a%vns or beards 

 of the flower. The spikelets are 1-flowered. The glumes are unequal, 

 the upper one being about i inch long, the lower two-thirds as long, and 

 both very narrow with long tapering points. The lower palet is narrow 

 and involute or rolled together around the upper palet and the grain or 

 seed, and running out at the apex into three slender, diverging, nearly 

 equal awns or beards, from 1 to 2 inches long. 



Where this grass is abundant it furnishes an inferior grazing, but by 

 enriching the soil its place can be supplied with much more valuable 

 kinds. (See Plate XXY.) 



EespectfuUy submitted. 



GEO. YASEY, Botanist. 



Hon. Wm. G. Le Due, 



Commissioner of Agriculture. 



REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF GARDENS 

 AND GROUNDS. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report in connection 

 with the operations of this division. 



The distributions for the year have aggregated to the number of one 

 hundred and ninety-five thousand plants of various kinds, but almost 

 wholly of those having economic value, as the olive, Japan persimmon, 

 tea, coffee, cinchona, orange, lemon, fig, grape, strawberry, &c. Fully 

 teven-eighths of these plants were distributed by mail, involving much 

 sabor iu their preparation for this mode of transportation. 



Estimating these plants at the very low price of 5 cents each, they 

 would represent a money value of $9,750, a sum considerably above the 

 amcunt of the appropriation allowed for labor for propagating, and for 

 keeping the gardens and grounds of the Department in order, which 

 includes 25,000 square feet of glass structures well stocked with plants 

 and 40 acres of ground, much of it kept as lawn and flower-garden, 

 with numerous walks and drives, together with collections of grapes, 

 strawberries, and other hardy fruiting plants, all of which require much 

 labor and attention for ordinary care and keeping. 



But little has been added to the arboretum colleetiou during the past 

 year. The proximity of the grounds to the city, and their almost un- 

 protected condition, render it a difficult matter to maintain the labels 



