4 
BULLETIN 309, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
fact that the Mexican name for the roots is "Raiz de zacaton"; that 
is, roots of grass, in literal translation. Zacaton 1 is the name most 
commonly applied to the species in Mexico. The French name for 
the root-brush mate- 
rial is "chiendent," 
while "Mexican 
whisk" is still an- 
other name applied 
to it. 
The first known 
collection of Epi - 
cam pes macroura 
was made by Hum- 
boldt and Bonpland 
in the mountains of 
Toluca, in the State 
of Mexico, at an 
altitude of 10,500 
feet, sometime prior 
to 1815. In the 
working up of this 
collection the speci- 
mens were assigned 
to the genus Crypsis 
Ait. under the spe- 
cific names ma- 
croura, phleoides, 
and stricta. About 
1829, when Kunth 
published that por- 
tion of his ' ' Revision 
des Graminees" 2 
containing the Agro- 
stideae, he evidently 
had changed his 
mind as to the as- 
signment of these 
specimens to Crypsis 
and reassigned them 
to Linnseus's genus Cinna. Many years later, about 1886, Eugene 
Fournier, 3 in working up the collections of Mexican plants deposited 
in the herbarium of the Museum of Paris, established a new genus, 
Fig. 1. — Zacaton (Epicampes macroura), whole plant, one-sixth natural 
size, a, Three spikelets, 4 times natural size; b, empty glumes, 4 times 
natural size; c , flowering glume, dorsal view, 4 times natural size; 
d, palet, dorsal view, 4 times natural size. 
1 Zacaton as a common name is applied also to Muhlcnbcrgia distichophylla (Presl) Kunth and Sporobolus 
wrightii Munro. 
2 Kunth, K. S. Revision des Graminees. 3 v. Paris, 1829. 
3 Fournier, Eugene. Mexicanas Plantas . . . pars. 2, p. 90. Parisiis, 1886. 
