Spikes ave in small clusters of three to six, terminating the stalk, and 
also several clusters from the side branches. The spikes are usually 2 
to 3 inches long, rather rigid, and contain ten to twenty flowers each. 
At each joint there is one sessile perfect flower and one stalked one, 
which is male only, otherwise it is nearly like the fertile one. The outer 
glumes are about 4 lines long, the upper ones tipped with a short stiff 
awn. The flowering glume of the perfect flower is twisted and about 
one-half inch long. - 
This species, as above stated, is abundant en the prairies of the West, 
where it is one of the principal hay-grasses of the country, and is ex- 
tensively eut and cured for winter use. (Plate 8.) 
Chrysopogon nutans (Wild oat-grass). 
This is a tall perennial grass, having a wide range over all the ecoun- 
try east of the Rocky Mountains. It grows rather sparsely and forms 
a thin bed of grass. The stalks are 3 to 6 feet high, smooth, hollow, 
straight, and having at the top a narrow panicle of Seabdianio straw-col- 
ored or brownish flowers 6 to 12 inches long, which is gracefully droop- 
ing at the top. The spikelets are at the ends of the slender branches of 
the loose panicle, generally of a yellowish color. This grass, when it 
occurs in quantity, is frequently utilized for hay-making, for which pur- 
pose it should be cut early. (Plate 9 
Oryzopsis cuspidata (Indian millet.) 
This grass has a wide distribution, not only on the Sierras of Cali- 
fornia, but northward to British America and eastward through all the 
interior region of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and 
Nebraska to the Missouri River. . It is a perennial, growing in dense 
tufts, whence its common name of bunch-grass. The culms are 1 to 2 
feet, with about three narrow convolute leaves, the upper one having a 
long, inflated sheath which incloses the base of the panicle. In Mon- 
tana it isone of the most esteemed bunch grasses, and thrives on soil 
too sandy for other more valuable species. The abundant seeds are 
very nutritious and fattening for cattle. (Plate 10.) 
Sporobolus eryptandrus. 
This species grows chiefly in sandy soil. The culms are frequently 
bent at the lower joints, then rising erect to the height of 2 or 3 feet. 
The leaves are mostly near the base, where the joints of the culms are 
short; here the sheaths are short and the blades of the leaves 5 to 6 inches 
long, the upper sheaths become longer and the blades shorter; the 
leaves are flat, but become involute in dry weather. The top of the 
sheath is fringed with fine soft hairs. The long and narrow panicle is 
for a long time completely inclosed in the very long sheath of the upper 
leaf, but finally emerges except the base and becomes more or less 
spreading. The full panicle is from 6 to 12 inches long, the branches 
mostly alternate or scattered, the lower ones about 1 inch apart and 
1 Nee ta eR a APO LR eae ean een 
