GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
199 
Buchloe Engelm., Trans. Acad. St. Louis 1: 432. 1859. Based on Sesleria 
dactyloides. Engelmann gave the first description of the genus. Nuttall's de- 
scription of Sesleria dactyloides was based on the Staminate plant. 
The species is usually described as dioecious 1 because the staminate and pis- 
tillate flowers are found on different individuals. Experiments in growing the 
plants from seed show that they are monoecious, the two kinds of flowers aris- 
ing from distinct branches which propagate vegetatively, each branch produc- 
ing its own kind. 2 Plank 3 observed that seedlings were monoecious. 
BuTbilis dactyloides (Nutt.) Raf. {Buchloe dactyloides Engelm.) 
(fig. 118), commonly known as buffalo grass, is one of the chief 
constituents of the sod on the Great Plains. It forms, when unmixed 
with other grasses, a close, soft, grayish green turf. Buffalo grass 
is dominant over large areas on the uplands, colloquially known as 
the " short-grass country," and is one of the most important grazing 
grasses of this region. The sod houses of the early settlers were 
made mostly from the sod of this grass. 
8. PHALARIDEAE, THE CANARY-GRASS TRIBE. 
99. Torresia Ruiz and Pav. 
( Hier ocfiloe R. Br., Savastana Schrank.) 
Spikelets with one terminal perfect floret and two staminate flo- 
rets, disarticulating above the glumes, the staminate florets falling 
attached to the fertile one; glumes equal, broad, thin and papery, 
smooth, acute; sterile lemmas about as long as the glumes, mostly 
somewhat appressed-hispid, sometimes awned from between two 
lobes ; fertile lemma somewhat indurate, about as long as the others, 
smooth or nearly so, awnless; palea 3-nerved, rounded on the back. 
Perennial, low, erect, sweet-smelling grasses, with small panicles of 
bronze-colored spikelets. Species about 17, confined to cool and 
alpine regions ; 3 species in the United States. 
Type species : Torresia utriculata Ruiz and Pav. 
Savastana Schrank, Baier. Fl. 1: 100, 337, 1789, not Savastania Scop., 1777. 
Type, S. hirta Schrank, the only species described. 
Torresia Ruiz and Pav., Syst. Veg. Peruv. Chil. 251. 1798. A single species 
described. 
Hierochloe R. Br., Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. 208. 1810. Type, Disarrenum 
antarcticum Labill. upon which is based the only species described (H. antarc- 
tica). Later authors have often spelled this Hierochloa. 
Dimesia Raf., Amer. Month. Mag. 2 : 175. 1818. Based on " Holcus fragrans 
of Pursh's Flora." This is the same as Torresia odorata. 
The common species, Torresia odorata (L.) Hitchc. (Hierochloe 
odorata Wahl., H. borealis Roem. and Schult.) (fig. 119), called holy 
grass, vanilla grass, or Seneca grass, grows in Canada and the north- 
ern part of the United States. Like all the species of the genus and 
the allied genus Anthoxanthum, it is sweet scented, owing to the 
1 Pilger discusses this and other species in a paper on monoecious and dioecious grass 
genera. Bot. Jahrb. Engler 34 : 377. 1904. 
s Hitchcock, Bot. Gaz. 20: 464. 1895. 8 Bull. Torrey Club 19: 303. 1892. 
