BULLETIN
6
tufts furnished the
309,
U.
S.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
raw material
for the first laboratory experiments
with zacaton.
DISTRIBUTION OF ZACATON.
1
The genus Epicampes is exclusively American. About 16 species have been described, some of which, in the opinion of expert agrostologists, would not retain specific rank under critical study. The ranges of the various species extend from California and Texas southward to" the Argentinian Andes Mexico is richest hi number of species, and there also the root-harvesting industry has reached its highest development. E. macroura has been reported from many widely separated localities from Texas to Central America. The collection in the United States National Herbarium embraces specimens from the following localities in Mexico: Canyon de San Diego, State of Chihuahua; San Luis Potosi, State of San Luis Potosi;
Fig.
3.— Longitudinal
section of calm,
X
480,
showing
spiral
and porous
vessels, stereome,
and
thin-
walled parenchyma.
Sayula, State of Jalisco; Morelia, State of Michoacan;
Nevada de
Toluca, Ixtaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, Salazar, Cima, Federal District of Mexico; Eslava, State of Mexico; Mount Orizaba, San Marcos, San
Andres, and San Miguel, State of Puebla. Zacaton grows most profusely in the mountain regions east and west of the City of Mexico. It is especially luxuriant in the districts around Sayula and Toluca, in the States of Jalisco and Mexico, respectively (it will be remembered that the original collection of
Humboldt and Bonpland was made on the mountain of Toluca), is now said to be harvested around Uruapan, in the State of Michoacan. The grass is generally consid-
while the finest quality of roots
ered a pest, but a few attempts to subject it to crude methods of cultivation are reported to have given good results. It is perennial, 1
Many
of the data in this
and the following paragraphs regarding
ing of the roots have been secured from Mr. A.
McEwcn,
distribution, climate,
Frederick,
Md.
and the harvest-
