NATIVE GRASSES OF NORTHERN MEXICO. 95 



tender and nutritious lierbuire so larixelv nniintiiins tlie iloeks antl 

 herds (»f tlie Anieri(!an farmer. 



The only attention whieli I have seen tlie Mexican ranclioro 

 bestow upon <;rass is to intdose, rarely, a limited area of valley 

 sod, ff)rmed (»t' hard and ton<j:h species like Spornbolus ]\'rif/h/ii, 

 Disftrhlis iiHtnfiiiKf and Pnnicmtt ohtn^uii), ami use the field to 

 restrain a few saddh; horses aiid work oxen, lie ])rovides scarcely 

 any store of fodder for his animals, so when the <rrowth of 

 vegetation is arrested hy the frosts of winter, they must bite 

 shorter the liaif d(>ad but still nutritions herbage, ami must 

 range widely to do this, and when the growths of the spring 

 months, always feeble, have been entirely checked by the wither- 

 ijig droughts which reach their worst in June, they must, if they 

 (^an, maintain life liy Itrowsing shrubs, cactuses, etc. 



To supply the wants of the animals \io\tt in the cities gives 

 employment during wintei- to many of the jioorer class, who 

 hawk about the streets, in ox-carts and on the backs of donkeys, 

 bundles of dead grass gathered on far away hillsides or plains, 

 liy the beginning of March the neighboring rancheros are selling 

 green wheat ami Itarley in the same way, and they plant maize 

 from early till late to suc(^eed these, frreat stacks, freshly cut, 

 iiuiy 1h! sei'u walking into town early in the morning with don- 

 key's leijs, scai'celv more than the feet visible — a droll si<rht. 



The exotic grasses Avhich accompany cereals as weeds of tillage 

 seem to be very few in northern Mexico. Of the 108 species on 

 my list, I count only three such: PanicHui sanrjuinale, L., /'. 

 Cru.'^-fffdli, L., Phalan'.^ ranarienxis, L. 



Nearly all the grasses range northward from Chihuahua to a 

 greater or less extent into the United States. All my species of 

 ArisUda and Stipa, aiul some species of ^fuhh'nhe)•f|i^l, are as yet 

 undetermined. 



Paspaluiii Ilnllii, V. «fe S., is confined to moist situations, as 

 the vicinity of streams and the banks of irrigating ditches. Its 



