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SOME COLORADO GRASSES. 
BUCHLOE DACLY1 OIDES (Engelm.) 
(Buffalo Grass.) 
Growing in broad mats and spreading by stolons 
dioecious; stems of the male plant very slender, 2 to 5 
inches high, smooth; sheaths, except the uppermost, 
nearly as long as the internodes, glabrous, striate; blades 
1 to If inches long, 1-20 to 1-10 inch wide, sparingly 
covered, both sides, with long hairs; spikes two or three, 
short, one-sided ; spikelets alternate in two rows, sessile, 
usually three-flowered; empty glumes membraneous, 
obtuse, the lower oblong, one-nerved, the upper twice as 
long as the lower, broadly lanceolate, one-nerved, equal¬ 
ing the flowering glume; flowering glume ovate, three- 
nerved, convex, nearly surrounding the two-nerved, 
hyaline palet, which nearly equals the glume in length; 
anthers three, large, on long, slender filaments. 
In the female plant the fertile stems are very short, 
usually about 1 inch, occasionally If inches long; leaves 
as in the male plant, except that the throat of the sheath 
is strongly bearded, and the blades are rather more hairy; 
spikes capitate, surrounded and exceeded by the leaves; 
branches of the rhachis two to five each, bearing two 
spikelets; spikelets one-flowered; empty glumes large, 
united below, the lower bifid or sometimes trifid, the 
upper trifid, both becoming indurated ; flowering glume 
ovate, lanceolate, three-nerved, nearly entire, terminating 
in a short, stiff awn; palet two-nerved, hyaline, enclosed 
by the flowering glume, the distinct styles plumose, long 
exserted. 
This, the true buffalo grass, which once formed so 
large a portion of the prairie tuft, is now found in this 
region only in isolated patches. The largest area I have 
seen of it is some five miles north of Fort Collins, in a 
hollow on the prairie; it may cover a half acre. Small 
mats, of from 5 to 15 square yards, are quite common. 
At this season, these mats may be readily distinguished, 
from a distance, by their yellowish green color. 
