31 



maturity. Professor Phares says it was formerly found widely diffused 

 through the Southern States, from the sea-shore to the mountains. It 

 is now seldom seen, having been destroyed by cattle. 

 Mr Howard, of South Carolina, says of it : 



This is a native of the South, from the mountains to the coast. The seed stem runs 

 up to the height of 5 to 7 feet. The seeds break off from the stem as if from a j<. 

 single seed at a time. Th leaves resemble those of corn. When cut be funs the 

 stems shoot up they make a coarse but nutritious hay. It may be cut three m 

 times during the season. The quantity of forage which can be made from it is enor- 

 mous. Both cattle and horses are fond of the hay. Tbe roots are almost as large- and 

 strong as cane roots. It would require a team of four to six oxen to plow it up. It 

 can., however, be easily killed by close grazing, and the mass of dead roots would 

 certainly enrich the land. As the seeds of this grass vegetate with uncertainty, it is 

 usually propagated by setting out slips of the roots about 2 feet apart each way. 

 On rich laud the tussocks will soon meet. In the, absence of the finer hay grasses 

 this will be found an abundant and excellent substitute. The hay made from it is 

 very like corn fodder, is quite equal to it in value, and may be saved at a tithe of 

 the expense. 



(Plate 21.) 



EUCHLAENA. 



Euchlaena luxurians (Teosinte). 



This grass is allied to and somewhat resembles Indian corn. Like it, 

 it has the male flowers in a tassel at the top of the stalk, and the fertile 

 ones arranged in slender spikes mostly concealed from view by the loose 

 husk or sheath in which they are contained. These husks come from 

 nearly every joint. 



Prof. Asa Gray, in the American Agriculturist for August, 1880, 

 speaking of this plant, writes : 



The director of the botanic garden and Government plantations at Adelaide, South- 

 ern Australia, reports favorably of this strong-growing, corn-like forage plant, the 

 Euchlcena luxurians ; that the prevailing dry ness did not injure the plants, which 

 preserved their healthy green, while the blades of the other grasses su fie red materially. 

 The habit of throwing out young shoots is remarkable, sixty or eighty rising to a 

 height of 5 to 6 feet. Further north, at Palmerstou (nearer the equator), in tlie cotir.-e 

 of five or six months the plant reached the height of 10 to 14 feet, ami the stems on 

 one plant numbered fifty-six. The plants, after mowing down, grew again several 

 feet in a few days. The cattle delight in it in a fresh state, also when dry. Undoubt- 

 edly there is not a more prolific forage plant known; but, as it is essentially tropic 

 in its habits, this luxuriant growth is found in tropical or subtropical climates. The 

 chief drawback to its culture with us will be that the ripening of the seed crop will 

 be problematical, as early frosts will kill the plant. To make the teosinte a mo.>t 

 useful plant in Texas, and along our whole Southern border, the one thing needful is 

 to develop early flowering varieties so as to get seed before frost. And this could be 

 done, without doubt, if some one in Texas or Florida would set about i'. What it lias 

 taken ages to do in the case of Indian corn, in an unconscious way, might bo mainly 

 done in a human life-time by rightly directed care and vigorous selection. Who is the 

 man who is going to make millions of blades of grass grow where none of any account 

 ever grew before ? 



Seeds of this semi-tropical forage plant were distributed by the De- 

 partment in the spring of 1886 and again in 1887. The plant consider- 



