57 
Eragrostis major. 
This is a foreign grass which has become extensively naturalized, not 
only in the older States, but in many places in the western and southern 
Territories. It is found in waste and cultivated grounds and on road- 
sides, growing in thick tufts, which spread out over the ground by means 
of the geniculate and decumbent culms. The culms are from 1 to 2 feet 
long, the lower joints bent and giving rise to long ig The grass 
is said to have a disagreeable odor when fresh. If produces an abun- 
dance of foliage, and is apparently an annual, reachi ip maturity late in 
the season. We are not aware that its nericnitarel value has ain 
tested. (Plate. 23.) 
Distichlis maritima (Salt-grass, alkaline- et 
is is described in most botanieal works as Brizopyrum spicatum, but 
recently the name given by Rafinesque has been accepted and Seiten 
to it by Mr. Bentham. It is a perennial grass, growing in marshes near 
the sea-coast on both sides of the continent, and also abandenthy in 
alkaline soil throughout the arid districts of the Rocky Mountains. It 
has strong creeping root-stocks, covered with imbricated loaf sheaths, 
sending up culms from 6 to 18 inches high, which are clothed nearly to 
the top with the numerous, sometimes crowded, two-ranked leaves. The 
leaves are generally rigid and involute, sharp-pointed, varying greatly 
in length on different specimens. The plants are diewcious, some being 
entirely male and some female. The panicle is generally short and 
spike-like, sometimes, especially in the males, rather loose, with longer, 
erect branches, and sometimes reduced to a few spikelets. 
Although this ean not be eonsidered a first-class grass for agricult- 
ural purposes, itis freely cut with other marsh grasses, and on the al- 
kaline oes of the Rocky Mountains it affords an inferior pasturage. 
(Plate 24 
_ 
Poa tenuifolia (Blue-grass of the plains and mountains). 
This species in several varieties is common in California, Oregon, 
Montana, ete., and is one of the numerous bunch-grasses referred to in 
the accounts of the wild pasturage of that country. The foliage of 
some forms is scanty, but of others the radical leaves are long and 
abundant. It is stated that the Indians gather the seeds of this grass 
for food. It is probable that it, by careful cultivation, may be made as 
valuable in agriculture for the region where it grows as the Poa pratensis 
is in the Hastern States. (Plate 25.) 
paras poietic (Bunch-grass). 
A pe ial grass growing in strong clumps or bunches, and hence 
called eanel -erass.” It is a native of the Rocky Mountain region, 
from Colorado wentwata to California and Oregon. The culms are usu- 
ally 2 to 3 feet high, erect and smooth; the- radical leaves are numer- 
ous, about half as long as the culm, generally rigid, involute, and sca- 
