18 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



There is great latitude in the popular use of the term "mesquit 

 grass." Ou the plains of western Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, aud 

 Nebraska it is generally applied to the prevailing grass of that region, 

 viz, Bouteloua oligostachya, although the same grass is also called buf- 

 falo grass, particularly northward. 



A correspondent in Texas sends three grasses under the name of mes- 

 quit, viz, Bouteloua texana, which he says is the common mesquit 

 (this species seems to be mainly confined to Texas); (2) Hilar iacenchro- 

 ides var. texana, which is running mesquit; and (3) Buchloe dactyloides, 

 which there is called curly mesquit. There are several other species of 

 Bouteloua, common in New Mexico and Arizona, which are also gen- 

 erally recognized as mesquit grasses. Strangely, however, in the South- 

 ern States, according to Professor Phares, Holcus lanatus is sometimes 

 called velvet mesquit grass, and he states that so far as has come to 

 his knowledge nine tenths of all the so-called mesquit grass planted in 

 the Southern States is this Holcus. 



Mr. E. W. Anderson, of Great Falls, Mont., states that in that sec- 

 tion Lygodesmia juncea is becoming a bad weed in cultivated ground. 

 The somewhat related European Chondrilla juncea is a very trouble- 

 some weed in Maryland and Virginia, extremely difficult to eradicate. 

 It was introduced at an early period in the settlement of the country. 



P. S. Clark, Hempstead, Tex., writes that Sesbania vesicaria has cov- 

 ered the entire prairies this summer, and caused the destruction of the 

 grass. 



Considerable has been said recently in Florida agricultural papers 

 about a grass called maiden cane, which there is considered a great 

 nuisance. This grass is Panicum curtisii, or a variety of it. In swampy 

 land it grows 3 or 4 feet high, with strong culms and coarse running 

 root-stocks and is almost invariably sterile. In dry, sandy fields it is 

 lower in stature, and has a branching panicle. It has been particularly 

 brought to notice by Mr. Simpson, of Manatee, and Professor Curtiss, 

 of Jacksonville (not the Curtis for whom the species was named, Rev. 

 M. A. Curtis, of North Carolina), has called it Simpson grass. 



Polish wheat, Triticum polonicum, is frequently sent from Montana 

 and the Northwest, where it is partially naturalized under the name of 

 wild-goose wheat and Montana rye. A notion prevails that the seed 

 was dropped by wild geese. It h^s been sometimes cultivated, and is 

 very hardy and productive, but not of very good quality. 



Mr. F. A. Swinden, Brownwood, Tex., writes that alfalfa (Medicago 

 sativa) seems in that locality to do well without irrigation. lie will 

 plant 100 acres of it in the spring. He has an orchard of 400 acres of 

 pecan trees (Carya olivceformis). 



R. Maitre, New Orleans, says that Panicum crus-galli delights in moist 

 ditches or furrows, and has the appearance of thrifty oat-stalks, and it 



