THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OP THE UNITED STATES. 85 



Prof. S. B. Buckley, of Austin, Tex., says : 



This is one of the best grasses of Texas for pasturage, if not the very best; being 

 perennial it affords food for stock both summer and winter. p]ven in midwinter it 

 presents a green covering over many liills and prairies in this vicinity. It is also the 

 best grass for lawns indigenous to Texas. It thrives on every variety of soil, grow- 

 inir on poor gravelly uplands, and also in rich river bottoms, but it mostly abounds 

 on the prairies, among the mesqnite trees scattered over their surface, throughout a 

 lar e portion of our State, whence it is commonly called mesqnite grass in Texas. 

 This name, however, is given to two or three other species of grass which are asso- 

 ciated with it. It is not difficult to eradiate, nor is it ever troublesome in cultivated 

 fields, because it has so few seeds. All kinds of stock are extremely fond of it, from 

 Avhich we infer that it is very sweet and nutritous. In extreme droughts all the 

 grasses seem dead, but a rain will make this grass green and growing in a few hours. 

 Even when dry, weather-beaten, and seemingly dead it is still good food for stock. 



Whether this grass can be successfully subjected to cultivation re- 

 mains to be seen. (Plate 81.) • 



Triodia. (Tricnspis.) 



This genus, which contains numerous species of very different size and 

 aspect, is characterized as follows: Spikelets, several to many-Howered, 

 someof theupper ones male orimperfect : theouter glumes keeled, acute, 

 or acutish, awnless ; the flowering glumes imbricated, rounded on the 

 ^back, at least below, three-nerved, the marginal nerves usually hairy, 

 mucronate, three-toothed or three-lobed at the apex, or obscurely erose, 

 often hardened and nerveless in fruit ; the palet broad, prominently 

 two-keeled. 



Triodla SESLERioiDES. {Tricuspis seslerloides.) (Tall Red top.) 



This grass grows from 3 to 5 feet high. The culms are very smooth ; 

 the leaves are long and flat, the lower sheaths hairy or smoothish. The 

 panicle is large and loose, at first erect, but finally spreading widely. 

 The branches are single or in twos or threes below, and frequently 6 

 inches long, divided, and flower-bearing above the middle. The spikelets 

 are on short pedicels, three to four lines long, and five or six flowered. 

 The outer glumes are shorter than the flowers, unequal and pointed; 

 the flowering glumes are hairy toward the base, having three strong- 

 nerves, which are extended into short teeth at the suinmit. It is a large 

 and showy grass when fully matured, the panicles being large, spread- 

 ing, and of a purplish color. It grows in sandy fields, and on dry sterile 

 banks, from New York to South Carolina, and westward. This is eaten 

 by cattle when it is young, but the culms are rather harsh and wiry and 

 not relished by them. It is, however, cut for hay where it naturally 

 abounds. (Plate 82.) 



Triodia trinerviglumis. [Tricuspis trinerriglumis.) 



Another perennial species of this genus, growing in Colorado, Ar- 

 kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and southward. The culms are 2 to 3 feet 

 high, and rather stout; the radical leaves are somewhat rigid, G to 12 



