66 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol.XIII, No. 4 , 
The typical prairie grasses are the following four species, 
named in the order of their importance: 
Andropogon furcatus Muhl. Big Blue-stem. 
Andropogon scoparius Mx. Little Blue-stem. 
Sorghastrum avenaceum (Mx.) Nash. Indian-grass. 
Panicum virgatum L. Tall Smooth Panic-grass. 
The Big Blue-stem may be regarded as the prairie grass. It 
grows in a close sod and formerly in certain years the flowering 
stems would be over ten feet high. On the richer uplands it grew 
with such luxuriance that the location of cattle and horses could 
frequently not be determined except by the waving of the tall 
stems as they passed through it. The Indian-grass usually 
occurs along with the big blue-stem, while the little blue-stem is 
characteristic of the higher drier slopes and hills. Along with the 
four large grasses mentioned above are the smaller gray-green 
grasses: 
Atheropogon curtipendulus (Mx.) Fourn. Racemed Atheropogon. 
Bouteloua oligostachya (Nutt.) Torr. Smooth Mesquite-grass. 
Bouteloua hirsute Lag. Hairy Mesquite-grass. 
In almost pure patches or mixed with the mesquite-grasses, is 
the very low-growing buffalo-grass, Bulbilis dactyloides (Nutt.) 
Raf., the most remarkable of the gray-green grasses of the plains. 
The patches of buffalo-grass are usually on the poorer clayey 
banks and slopes, a few yards to a number of rods in extent. The 
Texas spike-grass, Schedonnardus paniculatus (Nutt.) Trel., is 
frequently found on the buffalo-grass patches. 
In the wet ravines and level, poorly drained second-bottom 
lands, Spartina cynosuroides (L.) Willd, tall slough-grass, forms 
large close patches, and in “gumbo spots” subject to moisture 
the salt marsh-grass, Distichlis spicata (L.) Greene, occurs. 
On the ends of spurs or ridges between ravines where coyotes, 
burrowing owls, badgers, and other animals delight in making 
their burrows and thus cultivate the ground very thoroughly, 
the western couch-grass, Agropyron spicatum (Pursh) Scribn. & 
Sm., is often abundant. This grass was formerly the first to grow 
after the prairie had been burned off in the spring and was thus 
usually the first available green pasture for the pioneer’s cattle. 
There are several sedges on the upland and various species 
abound in moist ravines and about ponds. Many grasses besides 
those mentioned above also occur on the upland and in the ravines 
but those named are generally the characteristic species. The 
Republican River flows through this region with its wide flood- 
plain and there are here numerous species which do not extend to 
the upland. Such strips or ribbons of vegetation are, however, 
more or less edaphic and do not belong to the general floristic 
picture; just as the forest belts along the streams are not essentially 
different, except for the small number of species, from the vegeta- 
