66 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



the table, which is not easily distinguishable from some belonging to 

 A. Sc/avnant/ias. 



A. Lanigcr,~De$i., FL Ail. Vol. II., 379. — This is a small, beautiful, 

 slender grass, known as Woolly Andropogon, common in arid tracts 

 of Africa and Asia. My specimens are from Sind and Baroda. Its 

 roots are, as stated before, used in some places as Kashas for making 

 tatties, &c. 



A. Lcarancusa, Roxb., FL LuL, Vol. I., 27-5 ; Trim, iSp. Gram. Tab. 

 326. It is a tall grass with erect culms, 2 to 6 feet high, and a long 

 linear intercepted panicle, consisting of numerous flowering branches, 

 or spikes densely fasciculated. It grows in the plains, near the foot 

 of the Himalayas, Hurdwar, Nepal, and Karachi ; also in various 

 parts of Africa. Dalzell and Gibson, the authors of the Bombay Flora, 

 state : — " It is particularly mentioned by Arrian in his account of 

 Alexander's journey through the Punjab and Sind, and was gathered 

 by the Phoenician followers of the army in Lus, who called it Spike- 

 nard." It is common about Karachi, and is used as a scent by 

 natives. It may be found in the Amdabhad Zilla, but we think that 

 there must be some mistake as to its having been found in the 

 moist Konkan, as stated in Graham's Catalogue of the Bombay 

 Plants. Now, this plant, or some of its varieties, are not easily 

 distinguishable from A. Laniger, Desf., as you may gather by com- 

 paring the specimens of the two plants laid before you. In fact, in 

 my former paper, this difficulty in distinguishing one grass from 

 the other was thus mentioned : " Roxburgh, in his Flora Indica, 

 describes an aromatic species of Andropogon under the name of 

 A. Iwarancusa. Some botanists, however, think that the description 

 applies partly to A. Laniger and partly to A. Schccnanthus. Others 

 believe that there is in Northern India a grass with white hairs which, 

 though closely allied to A. SehcenantJius, is a distinct species." 



The whole plant — roots, leaves, and inflorescence — is aromatic. It 

 is however not known whether any oil is distilled from it. It is 

 said that the aromatic roots are used by the people of Northern 

 India in cases of intermittent fever. Plants ' belonging to this 

 group of Andropogons or the following four species are described 

 by Munro, Thwaites, Hamilton, &c. : — 



