BOUTELOUA. 
(GRAMA GRASS.) 
Spikes single or numerous in a racemose, commonly one-sided panicle; spikelets 
commonly densely crowded in two rows on one side of the rhachis, each consisting of 
one perfect flower and a stalked pedicel bearing empty glumes and one to three stiff © 
awns; outer glumes unequal, acute, keeled, membranaceous ; flowering glume broader, 
usually thicker, with three to five lobes, teeth, or awns at the apex; palet narrow, 
hyaline, entire or two-toothed, infolded by its glume. 
Bouteloua oligostachya (Grama Grass; Mesquite Grass). 
This is the commonest species on the great plains. It is frequently . 
called buffalo grass, although that name strictly belongs to another 
plant (Buchloé dactyloides), On the arid plains of the West it is the 
principal grass and is the main reliance for the vast herds of cattle 
which are raised there. It grows chiefly in smali, roundish patches 
closely pressed to the ground, the foliage being in a dense, cushion-like 
mass. The leaves are short and crowded at the base of the short 
stems, The flowering stalks seldom rise over a foot in height, and bear 
near the top one or two flower-spikes, each about an inch long, and from 
one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch wide, standing out at right angles 
like a small flag floating in the breeze. Where much grazing prevails, 
however, these flowering stalks are eaten down so much that only the 
mats of leaves are observable. In bottom-lands and low, moist ground 
it grows more closely, and under favorable circumstances forms a pretty 
close sod, but even then it is not adapted for mowing, although it is 
sometimes cut, making a very light crop. Under the most favorable 
circumstances the product of this grass is small compared with the 
cultivated grasses. It is undoubtedly highly nutritious. Stock of all 
kinds are fond of it and eat it in preference to any grass growing with 
it. It dries and cures on the ground so as to retain its nutritive 
properties in the winter. No attempt is made by stockmen to feed eat- 
tle in the winter; they are expected to “rustle around,” as the phrase 
is, and find their living; and in ordinary winters, as the fall of snow is 
light, they are enabled to subsist and make a pretty good appearance 
in the spring; but in severe winters there are losses of cattle, some- 
times very heavy ones, from want of feed. (Plate 62.) 
Bouteloua racemosa (Mesquite Grass; Tall Grama Grass). 
This species ranges from Mexico to British America and east of the 
Mississippi River, in Wisconsin and Illinois. It is easily distinguished 
from the others by its taller growth and by the long, slender raceme of 
twenty to fifty or more slender spikes. These are usually about half 
an inch long and reflexed. There are from six to ten spikelets on each 
spike. Although eaten by cattle, especially when made into hay, it is 
not so mucb relished as some other kinds. 
There are about a dozen other species of this genus occurring more 
or less extensively in the Southwest, chiefly in New Mexico and Arizona, 
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