8 



BULLETIN 309, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



summer, for my brother says that all through the present summer it has been cold 

 enough for an overcoat at night in the town of Sayula, where he resides. During 

 January, he says that it reaches to near zero and at 10 o'clock the next day it is up to 

 70° again. 



Mr. O. F. Cook corroborates Mr. McEwen's observations regarding 

 the relative coolness of the climate in which this grass thrives. In 

 Guatemala, where the former has noted the plant especially, he found 

 the same conditions. 



Figure 8 shows a comparatively sparse stand of zacaton on the 

 Vulcan de Agua, near Antigua, Guatemala, one of the early localities 

 from which the plant was collected. 



Figure 9, from a photograph taken in Guatemala, shows the grass 

 promptly claiming the neglected portion of a formerly cultivated 

 field on a terraced hillside along the road between Totonicapam and 



Quezaltenango, 

 Guatemala, show- 

 ing also in the 

 middle distance, 

 on the mountain 

 slope below the 

 pines, a character- 

 istic wire-grass 

 formation con- 

 tending with the 

 pines for suprem- 

 acy. Both of 

 these figures are 

 from negatives 

 made under the direction of Mr. Cook by Mr. C. B. Doyle, of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The grass is said to flower from August to October, depending upon 

 altitude and other conditions, and usually attains a height of 5 to 7 

 feet. The usable portions of the roots vary in length from 2 to 30 

 inches. The diameter of the roots range from one sixty-fourth to 

 three thirty-seconds of an inch. They are gathered at all seasons of 

 the year, peons digging them up with an implement resembling a hoe 

 in shape. After washing, cleaning, and drying, the roots are cut 

 from the grass, graded, and separated according to quality, length, 

 and color, and finally baled ready for shipment. Vera Cruz and 

 Tampico are the chief exporting ports, while France, Germany, and 

 the United States are the chief users of the brushes into which the 

 roots are manufactured. Roots of a pale yellow, a decidedly charac- 

 teristic color, are preferred by the trade. It is estimated that an 

 acre of grass yields a ton of marketable roots and at least 3 tons of 

 tops. At present the tops are not used in any way. It seems likely 

 that root operators might find it worth while to attempt the utilization. 



Fig. 6.— Cross section of a leaf blade, X 240, showing hypodermal stereome, 

 the large water-storage tissue, the palisade tissue, and the mestome sur- 

 rounded by a parenchyma sheath and a thick-walled mestome sheath. . 



