CALIFORNIA GRASSES. 251 



in adaptatipn to our present cultivated grasses, to which 

 it may be/'possible to bring those of the interior ulti- 

 mately. The prairie districts of the states bordering 

 the Mississippi, and the principal portion of the South, 

 ern States, greatly need some better adaptations both 

 to their soil and climate. The new grasses of the south- 

 west would probably not find a congenial climate in the 

 Southern States, because of the excess of rain and of 

 atmospheric humidity : but for the drier portions of 

 the states in the upper Mississippi valley they may be 

 found well suited. Some success has already attended 

 efforts to introduce them. 



They are perennials of as great endurance in the turf, 

 apparently, as the English grasses, though they spread 

 very slowly by the expansion of the root, and are re- 

 ported to leave the centre of the concentric tufts in 

 which they grow, open, as by decay of the original 

 root. But all the gramma and associated grasses pro- 

 duce seed largely, and under cultivation they might 

 become all that could be desired as field grasses. 



In California valuable native grasses exist, in part of 

 these and in part of other genera. There the climate 

 is even more extreme in its contrasts, and some of the 

 valuable grasses appear to be annuals. The bunch 

 grass (festuca) is abundant on the upland slopes and 

 valleys, and it is there, as everywhere, of great value. 

 Whether this may be cultivated is more problematical 

 than in case of the gramma, and there has probably been 

 no attempt at it yet. In the lower plains and valleys 

 oat grasses and annuals form a larger share; but whether 

 they are exclusive occupants is not sufficiently known. 

 There is certainly a tendency towards a less perma- 

 nently perennial character in most of the grasses of the 

 South and West, and they approach the higher grami- 

 naceous forms which constitute the grains more nearly 

 than those of northern origin, and the natives of humid 

 climates. 



Bryant, in a work on California some years since, 

 says of the grasses of that country : " The varieties of 

 grasses are greater than on the Atlantic side of the con- 



