266 TRIANDRIA DIGYNIA. AndroporjOll. 



Tarn. Woctiwear. 



Virana. Asiat. Res. vol. iv. p. 306. 



It is very common in every part of the coast and Bengal, 

 where it meets with a low, moist, rich soil, especially on the 

 banks of water courses, &c. 



Root of many perennial Jong, spongy, brown fibres. Culms 

 many, smooth, simple, rigidly erect, a little compressed at the 

 base, jointed, smooth, inwardly spongy ; from four to six feet 

 high and as thick as a goose-quill. Leaves near the base bi- 

 farious, narrow, erect, from two to three feet long, pretty 

 smooth, rigid. Panicle from six to twelve inches long, coni- 

 cal, composed of numerous spreading, short-peduncled, sim- 

 ple, linear, verticelled spiked-racemes. Rachis of the spiked- 

 racemes jointed, winding, naked. Flowers paired, awnless; 

 one hermaphrodite, sessile ; the other male, and pedicelled ; 

 insertions nearly naked. 



Hermaphrodite Flower. Calyx two-valved, nearly 

 equal, muricated. Corol three-valved, membranaceous. Nec- 

 tary, two obccrdate scales em bracing the genu and insertions 

 of the filaments. Stamens three. Stiymas feathery. 



Male Flower. Calyx as in the hermaphrodite. Corol 

 two-valved. JVeciary as above. Stamens three. 



Obs. The roots, when dry, and then gently moistened, 

 emit a pleasant kind of fragrance; they are employed to make 

 large fans, commonly called Vissaries; and also screens 

 which are placed before windows and doors, which being 

 kept moist during the hot winds render the air that passes 

 through them, both cool and fragrant. See Observation on 

 Aristida setacea. The grass is often employed for thatch. 



Dr. Konig was too accurate a Botanist to describe this very 

 conspicuous plant under two names, viz. A. squarrosus. 

 Linn. sp. pi. Willd. iv. 908, and A. uiuricatus ; the former is 

 evidently a very different species, and found by him in Cey- 

 lon, floating on pools of water ; whereas A. mnricatns (which 

 I formerly called aromaticus) is always rigidly erect, whe- 

 ther growing in water, or on dry land. Its root is delightful- 



