Poll. TRIANDRIA DIGYNIA. 333 



mon ritchis; which is filiform, wared, three-sided, and hispid. 

 Spikelets alternate, pedicelled, linear, remote, many-flowered. 



4. P. cynosuroides. Linn. sp. pi. ed. Willd. i. 393. 



Smooth, straight, from one to three feet high. Leaves long 

 and acute. Panicle straight, sub-cylindrical ; ramifications 

 horizontal ; spikelets depending, from six to twelve-flowered. 



Uniola b?pinnata. Linn. sp. pi. 104. 



Sans. Koosha, Kootha, Dwrbhrt, PMvitnmg. 



C'nsa or Cusha. Asiat. Res. iii. 255. and 490. and iv. 249. 



Beng. Koosh«. 



Teling. Dwrbha, D?/bha, or Dwrpa. 



A strong coarse species, a native of dry barren ground. 



Root creeping, perennial. Culms straight, rigid, round, 

 smooth, from one to three feet high. Leaves numerous, very 

 long, chiefly about the base of the culms, rigid margins his- 

 pid. Panicle erect, linear-oblong-, often tending to a conical 

 form, composed of many somewhat three-fold, verticelled, ho- 

 rizontal, short, rigid, secund ramifications. Spikelets many- 

 flowered, depending, in two rows, from the under side of the 

 ramifications. Corol, valves pointed, the inner one rather the 

 largest. 



Obs. It is employed by the brahmwns in their religious 

 ceremonies. Cattle do not eat it. Can this be Gramen ca- 

 pillaceum ? &c. Pluck. Aim. p. 176. t. 34. Fig. 2. Cusa, or 

 Cusha, the Sanscrit name of this much venerated grass, was 

 given to it at a very early period, by the Hindoo Philoso- 

 phers, and believed, by Sir William Jones, to have been con- 

 secrated to the memory of Cush, one of the sons of Ram. See 

 Asiatic Researc/ics, vol. iii. ^.490. If so, Ave have here a 

 very ancient precedent for the present very convenient prac- 

 tice of giving such arbitrary names to plants, and to their 

 families. 



5. P. ciliaris. Linn. sp. pi. ed. Willd. i. 402. 



Smooth, sub-erect, from one to two feet high. Panicle 



