404 Sir R. Schomburgk on some Grasses and Sedges 



observes that it occurs in Martinique, the Sandwich Islands and 

 the Cape of Good Hope ; Labillardiere found it in New Holland, 

 and Browne gives Hunt's Bay in Jamaica as a locality. Von Mar- 

 tius found it in the province of Bahia on the sea-shore ; Pursh 

 describes it from Virginia. 



Cynodon Dactylum, Pers. Syn. i. 85 ; Browne, Prodr. i. 187 ; Nees ab 



E. Gram. Afr. Austr. 241 ; Pursh, /. c. i. 70. 

 Agrostis linearis, Retz. ; Jones in Asiat. Res. iv. 248. 

 Panicum lineare, Burra. Ind. 25. t. 10. f. 2 ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 294 (?). 

 Agrostis bermudiana, Tussac in Herb. Juss. 

 Durva, Dub or Doob-grass of the Hindoos, Lambert in Linn. Trans, vi. 



Bahama or Yard-grass. 



This is a very elegant grass in appearance, but one of the most 

 injurious in cultivated grounds. It sends its roots deep into the 

 soil and increases with great rapidity. If it make its appearance 

 among the sugar-cane plants, it requires great care to have it ex- 

 terminated*. This grass has been found in every part of the 

 world : Knapp pictures it in his ' Gramina Britannica * (tab. 13) 

 under the name of Creeping Dog's-tooth grass, and observes that 

 it was discovered upon the sands of Marazion in Cornwall in the 

 days of Ray, where it has been found since ; Penzance is another 

 locality mentioned in Hooker's l Flora Britannica/ and it appears 

 to be common in Southern Europe. It occurs likewise in the 

 Caucasus, East Indies, North and South America, Southern Africa, 

 Cape of Good Hope, Luconia, Otaheite, New Holland, &c. 



It i3 considered in Demerara a good fodder- grass, and grows 

 generally on dams, and in the yards attached to the buildings on 

 sugar-estates. Nuttall calls it a remarkable creeping-grass, grow- 

 ing very luxuriantly on the sands of the sea-coast as well as on the 

 poorest loose soil, and were not its extirpation so difficult, it might 

 be of importance in establishing pastures where scarcely any other 

 vegetable would exist. It forms so thick a turf as to suffer few other 

 plants near it, and the variety /3. would look as pretty in lawns 

 under the tropics as the Festuca ovina in our temperate climates. 



I collected two varieties in Demerara ; the first is from the 

 neighbourhood of Georgetown, and the second from Mon Repos ; 

 Nees von Esenbeck designates them as follows : — 



a. C. Dactylum, var. foliis angustioribus viridibus lsevioribus, flosculi 

 accessorii setiformis capitulo compresso truncatoque. 



j3. C. Dactylum, var. pumila, foliis angustioribus viridibus, capitulo 

 setulse accessoria? truncato compresso. 



* It is called Devil's-grass in Barbados, and is said to have received its 

 name from the difficulty of eradicating it; according to others, it was intro- 

 duced by a person of the name of De Durville, which the negroes corrupted 

 into the one by which it is now known in that island. 



