THE PLAINS GRASSES. 75 



Of grasses of course there are numerous varieties; 

 of these perhaps the far-famed Buffalo Grass (Ses- 

 leria Dactyloides] is the most remarkable; it covers 

 most of the higher and drier portions of the North 

 American plains with a very thick, dwarf-growing 

 herbage, three or four inches long, of an extremely 

 nutritious character, and eagerly devoured by all the 

 herbivora. Throughout the spring and summer it forms 

 a beautiful sward of emerald green, which later on 

 turns to a colour something like that of fresh hay; indeed 

 its most valuable quality is this peculiarity that it forms 

 excellent natural hay, which preserves throughout the 

 severest winters all its most nutritious qualities. Trans- 

 planted to localities where it is not a natural habitant, 

 it is said to have been found to change its character 

 so greatly that it could hardly be recognised as the 

 same plant, and becomes a tall, coarse, rank-growing 

 grass. * 



Among other valuable and noteworthy varieties, the 

 tall gramma grass of the Texas plains (Chrondosiiim) 

 may be mentioned. It grows on the prairies there to 

 a height of two or three feet. Then the bunch grass 

 of California (Elymus Condensatus], and also the Tussock 

 grass (Dactylus Ccespitosa) of the Falkland Islands, 

 afford other conspicuous examples of valuable natural 

 forage plants of various descriptions of plains countries. 



In the more settled lands of the State of Kentucky 

 too, where the plains first begin to replace the forest 

 growth, the country is celebrated for its famous pastures 

 of " blue grass " (Poa Compressa), said to be the finest 

 grass in America, and perhaps in the world, which is 



* The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, by Colonel R. J. 

 Dodge, U.S.A., 1877, p. 33. 



