8 
SOME COLORADO GRASSES. 
Fertilization is effected in grasses by the wind wafting 
the pollen to the feathery stigmas. 
To secure this end, grasses occur in great areas, and 
owing to the great superabundance of pollen, the pistils 
are certain of fertilization, either from their own or from 
foreign pollen. 
On the treeless plains a set of conditions obtain not 
paralleled elsewhere, to meet which, by clothing them with 
plants showing some adaptation to these conditions, and at 
the same time be more productive than such as naturally 
exist there at present, has long been a leading factor in the 
work of the Department of Agriculture. 
In fact, the possible agricultural value of some of our 
native species has been a subject of interest and inquiry 
for some time, especially to the people of the West and 
South. 
Some of the native species yield an excellent growth 
of herbage when not over-fed or tramped out. Others, 
however, are too meagre of top to admit of their success¬ 
ful cultivation, as against more thrifty kinds. 
The plains grasses are of a dwarf, spreading habit, 
and present a magnificent sight in June, clothed in the 
richest green. These grasses are cured during late sum¬ 
mer, the result of a high temperature, and the absence of 
rain dissipating the stems and leaves of their surplus 
moisture. The absence of wet snows, the high day tem¬ 
perature and the protection afforded by the hills, renders 
the wintering of stock a safe problem. 
In order to collect some information in regard to the 
distribution of particular kinds, their behavior under irri¬ 
gation in the native meadow, and to collect seeds in quan¬ 
tity of such as were deemed of possible value in the 
plains region, an expedition was undertaken by the writer, 
at the instigation of the Department of Agriculture and 
of the State Experiment Station, accompanied by Mr. 
