Vol. XV. No. 368. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



17» 



question is the desirability to make provision for 

 prohibiting the importation of any kind of plant, 

 including seed from countries where any dangerous 

 pest or disease of that, or an allied plant, is known to 

 exist: at the same time it would be well to have the 

 means of prohibiting the importation of any plants 

 whatsoever in certain circumstances from anj' particu- 

 lar country where some particular virulent trouble may 

 be known to exist. 



One thing in regard to plant legislation and its 

 execution is, that it must be conducted in a rational 

 manner, and m the light of the"' latest scientific 

 knowlege. Many laws are in operation which in their 

 effects are practically useless, owing to inadequate 

 consideration having been given to the scientific side, 

 or perhaps through scientific knowledge having been 

 inadequate at the time the enactment was made. 

 Plant disease legislation may be expected to require 

 amendment from time to time as our knowledge 

 progresses. 



BOTANICAL IDENTITY OF WEST INDIAN 



SOUR GRASSES. 



It having occurred to the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 that there were ditferences between the forms of so called 

 'sour grass' observed at Antigua and Montserrat and those 

 occurring in Barbados, the matter was referred to Kew, and, 

 as the outcome, the whole question has been carefully 

 investigated by Dr. O. Stapf, who has examined the material 

 available at Kew. He has, in consequence, prepared 

 a preliminary paper discussing the relationship of the allied 

 grasses occurring all over the world. 



Pending the completion of the investigations, Sir D. Prain, 

 Ltirector of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has kindly 

 forwarded to this Office the paper embodying the conclusions 

 reached up to the present, whit-h in its completed form will 

 ultimately be published in the Kew Bidleiin. A summary 

 of the present conclusions is now given for the information 

 of readers of the Ayricidliiral News. 



The name Andropogon pertusus has of late been applied 

 to the 'sour grass' of Barbados, which is assumed to have 

 been introduced into the West Indies at some time unknown, 

 and the extension of the name to the sour grasses of the 

 Antilles generally has been due to the notion that they were 

 all of one species; such apparently .slight modifications as were 

 observed being considered as coming within the range of 

 ordinary fluctuation. The consideration that the forties of 

 the last century, at which time specimens were collected in 

 Antigua, seemed a very early date for the introduction into 

 the West Indies of a fodder plant whose economic value was 

 apparently not appreciated until many years afterwards, has 

 led to an investigation of the West Indian sour grasses so far 

 as was possible with the use of the specimens to hand. 



The first references to Andropof/ov pertusus as a fodder 

 plant are Australian in origin, and date back to the middle 

 seventies. Australian writers do not suggest that the grass 

 is an introduced species into that country. In a book pub- 

 lished in 1 888, it is stated that a grass kno^^^l by this name 

 is universally esteemed as a good fodder grass all over the 

 plains of Northern India 



Mention of the economic importance of the West Indian 

 sour grasses was made by Mr. C. A. Barber in 1894, and 

 Mr. J. R. Bovell in 1895, writing from Antigua and Barba- 

 dos respectively. The former used the name A. swcharoides 

 and the lAttsr A. pertusus. There is a Barbados specimen 

 at Kew dated 1869, and as early as 1830 Mayc<ick's 

 Flora Btirbadeiisis mentions a 'narrow-leaved' sour grass 

 in that island. The adjective was used to distinguish it from 

 other gra.sses earlier known by that name, and his description 

 shows that he meant a grass coming within the present us» 

 of the term. 



There appear to be three grasses known as Andropogon 

 pertusus and valued for fodder, i e., Barbados sour grass, the 

 'pitted blue grass' of Australia, and the Indian grass already 

 referred to. 



Andropogon pertusvs was described by Linnaeus from 

 Indian specimens. It is a characteristic plant of old pasture 

 ground in the Gangetic plain and the Punjab, and occurs 

 further south as far as Ceylon. It has also been collected 

 in various Asiatic and African localities. 



The Australian plant appears to be a form of Andropogon 

 intermedius, E. Br. The West Indian material at Kew 

 falls into three groups; of these Set ( 1 ) has the nodes bearded' 

 and the sessile spikelets not pitted. It has been collected ia 

 Dominica, Antigua, a' d Montserrat. Set (2) has the nodes 

 glabrous and the sessile spikelets pitted. The specimens are 

 from Barbados Nevi.», and Guiana, the last named from 

 cultivated material originally received from Barbados. Set (3) 

 is intermediate between (1) and (-J), the nodes being 

 glabrous or more or less pubescent, the sessile spikelets either 

 pitted or not pitted in the same inflorescence, but prevalently 

 not pitted. The specimens come from Barbados, Tobago, and, 

 St. Vincent. 



Dr. Stapf reaches the conclusion that Set ( 1 ) is identical' 

 withHackels' var mnerimmis of A. Ischaemum, and proposes 

 to raise it to specific rank under the name A. feracidulus. 

 This he considers as quite distinct from the remainder, and 

 truly indigenous. 



Sets (2) and (3) are very closely allied to A. intermedius- 

 but more information is required before coming to a definite 

 decision as to their origin. Dr. Stapf puts forward the 

 hypothesis that they may have originated by crossing between 

 A. feracidulus and an introduced form of the Old World 

 A. intermedius, and proposes the name A. intermedius, var. 

 acidulus. 



For the sake of clearne.ss, the generic name A' dropogou' 

 has been retained in this suuunary, but it nuist be indicated 

 here that Dr. Stapf agrees with tiie elevation of the sub-genus 

 Amphilophis to generic rank, so that the species above referred 

 to will become Amphrlo2jhis intermedia, Stapf, Amp. feraci- 

 dula, Stapf, and Amp. pertusa, Nash. 



Further information bearing on the points not yet 

 cleared up is being sought both in Australia and the West 

 Indies. 



