Abstract
THIS work is issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the twelfth Bulletin relating to botany which has been published by the Department. In this first part fifty uncoloured figures of the characteristic grasses of the south-west are given. The drawings are made by Mr. William Scholl, and the botanical determinations and descriptions are furnished by the veteran chief botanist of the Department, Dr. Geo. Vasey. The region of country immediately adjoining the northern boundary of Mexico, including the western part of Texas and the greater part of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California, is one of great heat and aridity. It is mainly a region of elevated plains, intersected by mountain ranges which occasionally run into high peaks, and is drained by comparatively few streams. In consequence of these climatic conditions the grasses become scanty, not in variety of species, but in individual quantity: some of them being short-lived, springing up rapidly after the summer rains, and soon dying away; others perennial, provided with deeply penetrating roots which enable them to bear the long droughts. Nowhere do the native grasses form a continuous herbage, as in our English meadows and pastures. The common grasses of the Northern and Eastern States are nowhere to be seen. This tract of country is getting more and more settled, and the most important agricultural problem before its inhabitants is how to increase the production of grasses and forage plants on the arid lands. It is very likely that this can best be done by bringing some of the native grasses into cultivation. The present work is issued mainly to give aid in this direction. A second part, containing fifty more plates, is in preparation; and this will be followed by a synopsis of all the grasses which grow wild in the district. Amongst the natives which are specially recommended for trial are Panicum bulbosum, Stenotaphrum americanum, Hilaria mutica, Andropogon saccharoides, Boutelouea aristoides, and B. eriopoda. There is a native species of millet, Setaria caudata.
Grasses of the South-West: Plates and Descriptions of the Grasses of the Desert Region of Western Texas, New Mexico, and Southern California.
Part I. By Dr. Geo. Vasey. Published by Authority of the Secretary of Agriculture. (Washington: Government Publishing Office, 1890.)
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B., J. [Book Reviews]. Nature 43, 389 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/043389a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/043389a0