STATE GEOLOGIST. 165 



BUCHL.OE, Engelm. Buffalo Geass. 

 B. dactyloides, Engelm.* Buffalo Grass. 



Abundant in the vicinity of the pipestone quarry, at Pipestone City, commencing 

 a few rods north of the railroad depot, and extending the whole length of the outcrop- 

 ping ledge of rock northward, in company with a dense growth of prickly pear (Opuntia 

 Missouriensis and O. fragilis); also occurring, at rare intervals, on stony and gravelly 

 soil, in Eock county, and in Lyon county, Iowa ; (not found farther east ; perhaps in 

 all these places Introduced toy the Indians in their journeys from the western plains to 

 the pipestone quarry ;) Leiberg. [Formerly the most abundant species of grass through- 

 out Nebraska, lately disappearing, according to ^MSfftey, who attributes its dying out to 

 increased rain-fall.] 



GRAPHEPHORUM, Desv. Graphephobuk. 



G festucaceum, Gray.f Graphephorum. 



In Emmet county, Iowa, six miles south of the state line (plentiful upon space of 

 five or six square rods, in edge of lake) , Cratty; determined by Prof. Asa Gray; the first 

 observation of this species in the United States, though it abounds in the Saskatchewan 

 region and extends thence northward, and also is found in northern Europe. Doubtless 

 it occurs In western and northern Minnesota. {Botanical Gazette, vol. ix, -p. 27 ; Feb., 

 1884.) 



*BucHLOE, Engelmann. Flowers dioecious, heteromorphous. MaUplant. Spikes 



1-sided, 2-ranlfed ; spikelets 2- or 3 flowered. Glumes 2, 1-nerved, lower much smaller. 

 Palets 2, of equal length, longer than the glumes ; lower one 3-nerved, muci'onate ; 

 upper one 2-nerved. Squamulje in pairs, truncate, emarginate. Stamens 3; anthers 



linear. Eudiment of an ovary none. Female plant. Spikes 1 to 3, short, capitate, 



oblique in the involucrate sheaths of the upper leaves ; spikelets 1-flowered, crowded, 

 upper floret abortive, withering. Glumes 2; lower glume of the lowest spikelets 1- to 3- 

 nerved, lanceolate-subulate, with an herbaceous tip, or 2- or 3-clef t, lower side adnate to 

 the back of the upper glume ; lower glumes of the other spikelets (internal as to the head) 

 free, much smaller, membranaceous, ovate-lanceolate, acute, l -nerved ; upper glumes 

 (external) connate at the base with the thickened rachis, at length like a hard, woody 

 involucre, ovate, nerveless, pale, trifld at the herbaceous, nerved tip. Lower palet (in- 

 ternal as to the head) shorter, 3-nerved, herbaceous, tricuspidate ; upper palet shorter, 

 2-nerved. Squamulse as in the male flowers. Eudiments of the stamens 3,"mlnute. 

 Ovary lenticular, glabrous, very short-stipitate ; stigmas much longer than the 2 erect 

 terminal styles, plumose with simple hairs, exsert from the apex of the flower. Gary- 

 opsis free, included in a horny, at length deciduous head, sublenticular, flat on the out- 

 side (toward the lower palet), convex on the inner side. 



B. DACTYLOIDES, Eugelmanu. Trans. Haint Louis Acad., vol, i, p. 432, pi, 12 and 14. 

 Densely tufted, spreading by stolons, forming broad mats ; culms 3 to 6 inches long ; 

 flowering stems of the male plant 4 to 6 inches long, glabrous or slightly hairy ; leaves 

 2 to 4 inches long, y^ to W2 lines wide, nearly smooth ; sheaths striate, glabrous, strongly 

 bearded at the throat ; spikes 3 to 6 lines long ; spikelets alternate in 2 rows, upper- 

 most abortive, bristle-form, 2 to 3 lines long ; lower glume ovate-lanceolate, with a 

 scarious margin ; upper glume twice longer, ovate ; lower palet convex, 3-nerved, 

 upper one 2-nerved, two minute scales at the margin and inside of the lower palet ; 

 stamens 3. Stems of the female plant much shorter than the leaves, l^/i to2 inches 

 high; heads 3 to 3!^ lines long ; glumes becoming ligneous ; spikes or heads usually 2 ; 

 at maturity becoming thick, extremely hard, including the loose grain. The cele- 

 brated "buffalo grass," known to hunters and trappers as one of the most nutritious 

 grasses, on which for a part of the year subsist and fatten the immense herds of buffalo 

 and the cattle of the hunter and emigrant. Porter and Coulter's Flora of Colorado. 



tGEAPHEPHORTJM FESTUCACEUM, Gray. (Festuca borealis, Mert. & Koch. Arundo 

 festucacea, Willd.) Culm as thick as a swan's quill, 3 to 4 or more feet high ; leaves 

 8 to 10 inches long, broadly linear-acuminate, rough to the touch. Panicle a foot 

 and more long, almost quite erect, as well as the subverticiUate slender branches. 



