148 



PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



aristoides) side-oat grama (B. curtipendula) black grama (B. eriopoda) 

 rough grama (B. hirsuta) hairy grama (B. Parryi) and other species of the 

 genus. It forms very dense sod and withstands the trampling of cattle 

 to a marked degree. It seems to grow more successfully when grazed 

 and trampled to some extent, and under favorable conditions of soil it 

 may grow sufficiently thick to be used as a hay grass. It is everywhere 

 on the mesas and prairies forming a dense mass of herbage of fine and 

 curly leaves arising from near the roots of the plant. The flowers bearing 

 stems are 6 to 18 inches tall and bear near their summits two to three one- 

 sided spikes in form like a tooth brush. This grass is easily propagated 

 by seed which can readily be collected. 



The side-oat grama is another common species and the most widely 

 distributed of all the true gramas ranging from the Atlantic states west- 

 ward to Arizona and south into Mexico. It is a conspicuous and impor- 

 tant pasture grass in the rougher portions of the plain regions and in 

 southern Arizona, it grows at altitudes mainly between 3,000 and 5,000 

 feet. The following analytical table gives the composition of this grass. 



Buffalo Grass (Btdbilis (Buchloe) dactyloides). This pasture grass -is 

 found from the Dakotas to the Rocky mountains and south into Mexico. 

 It is a creeping, stoloniferous, turf-forming, perennial grass giving rise to 

 more or less curly leaves. The flower-bearing shoots are four inches to a 

 foot tall and strictly dioecious. The staminate spikes usually overtop the 

 leaves, while the pistillate spikes are shorter than the leaves. The 

 staminate spikelets are 2-3 flowered. Pistillate spikelets are i -flowered 

 with indurated glumes, trifid at the apex. The lemma is narrow, hyaline 

 inclosing the 2-nerved palea. The grain is free within the hardened 

 glumes. The seedling plants are monoecious, but the staminate and pistil. 



