The Grasses of Arizona.
BY C. J. CROFT, U. S. A.
The grasses of this Territory, principally consist of four varieties:
No. 1. (Pleuraphis Jamesii, Torr.,) is the lowland Grama which grows in great profusion along the valley of the Gila, and constitutes the principal feed for our animals, which do quite well upon it, moderately worked.
No. 2. (Aristida purpurea, Nutt.) The highland Grama, growing upon the sand “mesas,” or highlands, seems to differ but little, if any, from that found in some portions of California.
No. 3. (Muhlenbergia pungeus, Thurb.) Black Grama, or, “Grama China,” as vulgarly called by the natives, is the most valuable as feed; upon it animals will fatten. It grows on the highlands in sandy arid soil. I have never met any of this variety in the valley of the Colorado, and but very little in the territory of New Mexico. At this post we have had as many as 700 animals, and the scarcity of forage required us to herd our stock upon this grass during the winter. We were often obliged to make rapid and distant marches in pursuit of Indians, over a country almost impassable, yet our horses stood it well, fed only upon this grass. Our cavalry here had no grain during the entire winter. This Grama, like the other species, grows in bunches several feet apart, and the lower stalks are green during the winter season.
No. 4. (Sporobolus airoides, Trin.) This grows in the valleys. A great portion of the Gila Valley is covered with it. Animals eat it readily when green; it is however a powerful diuretic. As a winter grass it is of no account.
Besides these four enumerated grasses, the letter contained three others from the same locality:
1. Panicum capillare, L.
2. Tricuspis pulchella, Kunth.
3. A Poa, much of the habitat of Poa sudetica. Vivid green; leaves plane, rather large; spikelets four-flowered, oval; lower glume one, and the upper three nerved; lower palea distinctly three-nerved, scabrous on the Red nerve. The nerves of the glumes, as well as of the lower palea, are of a vivid green color, and exceedingly prominent. The whole aspect of the plant sent, would rather suggest that it is not indigenous to that section of the country.