124 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



GRAMINE-3S. 



Tribe- PAMCACEiE. 



Sub-Tribe — Panice^e. 



Genua — Paspalum. 



P. Kora, Willd., Roxb. Fl. Ind. I., 278, 279 ; Dalz. and Gibs., 

 Bomb. Fl., Suppl. 97. 



This is probably the wild state of Paspalum scrobculatum. It 

 grows in all districts, but not in abundance. 



P. scrobiculatum, Linn. 



Yern. — Koda, Kodra, Harik, Pakodi, Pakod. Cultivated all over 

 the Presidency. The following is reproduced from my work, " The 

 Useful Plants of the. Bombay Presidency," which forms part of the 

 25th Vol. of the Bombay Gazetteer : — " Several varieties of this grain 

 are mentioned by the natives, the differences in them being probably 

 due to differences in the soil, method of cultivation, &c. Two sorts 

 are, however, well known : the wholesome and the unwholesome. The 

 former is smaller and paler than the latter, and goes by the name of 

 pakodi or harik in the Konkan. In Goa it is called Pakod. The unwhole- 

 some variety is called dhone or majari, harik in the Konkan, and 

 m ana kodra in Gujarat. In Sanskrit it is named Kodrava (injurious). 

 The grain is said to be the only poisonous part of the plant. Although 

 the two principal varieties have been styled respectively wholesome 

 and unwholesome, the arrangement is only one of convenience, for 

 all the varieties are, as a matter of fact, more or less poisonous, and 

 the highly poisonous seed of one locality, when sown in a different 

 soil from that which produced it, may yield a grain whose properties 

 have become either modified or intensified, according to the peculia- 

 rities of the localities." 



Kodra grain is a common article of food with all the poor people in 

 India. They prepare it by macerating it for three or four hours or more 

 in a watery solution of cowdung, when the scum and the deteriorated 

 grain which rise to the surface are separated and the good grain 

 removed and spread out in the sun to dry. This process is repeated 

 bo long as any poison is suspected to remain in the grain. Boiling 

 does not entirely destroy the poison, but if the grain is kept for a 



