428 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



Buchloe dactyloides (Southern buffalo-grass). — This species is next in 

 value and extent of distribution to the grama grass. It also is found 

 all over the great plains south of Nebraska and southern Wyoming, 

 but not further north, although in many localities it occurs so sparsely 

 as to be of little account. A single bunch of it very greatly resembles 

 Bouteloua oligostachya, but its general growth is very different. It is 

 very short, its general mass seldom rising more than 3 inches above 

 the ground. It grows in extensive patches, and spreads by means of 

 stolons, which sometimes are 2 feet in length, with joints every 3 or 4 

 inches. Owing to its southern distribution this might well be named 

 the Southern buffalo grass, to distinguish it from the two other species 

 of higher latitudes, to which the name " buffalo" has been fastened for- 

 ever. 



Stipa spartea (Northern buffalo-grass ; wild oat). — This grass is found 

 in southern Manitoba, westwardly across the plains to the Rocky Mount- 

 ains, aud southward as far as Montana, where it is common in many 

 localities. On what was once the buffalo range of the British Posses- 

 sions this rank grass formed the bulk of the winter pasturage, and in 

 that region is quite as famous as our grama grass. An allied species 

 (Stipa viridula, bunch-grass) is " widely diffused over our Rocky Mount- 

 ain region, extending to California and British America, and furnish- 

 ing a considerable part of the wild forage of the region." Stipa spartea 

 bears an ill name among stockmen on account of the fact that at the 

 base of each seed is a very hard and sharp-pointed callus, which under 

 certain circumstances (so it is said) lodges in the cheeks of domestic 

 animals that feed upon this grass when it is dry, and which cause 

 much trouble. But the buffalo, like the wild horse and half-wild range 

 cattle, evidently escaped this aunoyance. This grass is one of the 

 common species over a wide area of the northern plains, and is always 

 found on soil which is comparatively dry. In Dakota, Minnesota, and 

 northwest Iowa it forms a considerable portion of the upland prairie 

 hay. 



Of the remaining grasses it is practically impossible to single out any 

 one as being specially entitled to fourth place in this list. There are 

 several species which flourish in different localities, and in many re- 

 spects appear to be of about equal importance as food for stock. Of 

 these the following are the most noteworthy: 



Aristida purpurea (Western beard-grass; purple "bunch-grass" of 

 Montana). — On the high, rolling prairies of the Missouri- Yellowstone 

 divide this grass is very abundant. It grows in little solitary bunches, 

 about 6 inches high, scattered through the curly buffalo-grass (Bouteloua 

 oligostachya). Under more favorable conditions it grows to a height of 

 12 to 18 inches. It is one of the prettiest grasses of that regiou, and in 

 the fall and winter its purplish color makes it quite noticeable. The 

 Montana stockmen consider it one of the most valuable grasses of that 

 region for stock ot all kinds. Mr. 0. M. Jacobs assured me that the 



