274 TRiANDttiA DiGYNiA. AndropogOTi, 



immediately east of Bengal. The grain is milk white ; some of it was 

 sown in ihe Botanic Garden, during the early part of the rainy sea- 

 son of 1812, and in November the plants were from ten to fifteen 

 feet high, several ramous stems arising from the same root, or grain 

 of seed ; all the joints of the lower half of the original stems which 

 are as thick as a slender walking cane, throw out copiously verticels 

 of roots from all the joint, the lower ones near the soil enter it, and 

 give additional support and nourishment to the plants, which are of 

 two, or more vears' duration, if suffered to remain ; the leaves are 

 from twenty to forty inches long, by two or three broiid, soft and smooth, 

 the rib white on both sides. Panicles large, oval on the more slen- 

 der branches, and in those, while in flower erect ; but in such as 

 terminate the primary stems the form is obscure, from the drooping 

 liabit of their branches. The flowers agree with those of Sorghum, 

 except that the awn is so small and short as to be hid within the' 

 glume of the calyx ; the neuter flowers are very minute, and consist 

 of only one or two slender, villous, calycine glumes. The grain of 

 this plant is the staff of life of those wild savage mountaineers, who 

 inhabit the above mentioned countries, where it is one of the few 

 articles cultivated by them. Cattle are fond of the straw, or rather 

 canes. 



29. A. sacharatns. R. 



Erect. V ankles verticelled, with ramifications drooping. Calyx 

 hairy, corols awnless ; hermaphrodite three-valved, neuter one-valv- 

 ed. - 



Holcus saccliaratus. JAnn. Sp. PL ed. Ifilld. iv. 930. 



Hind, and Beng. Deo-dhan. 



Is much cultivated over various parts of India during the rsriny 

 and cold seasons upon land which is too high for rice. 



Root rmyious. —Culms erect, round, jointed, sometimes ramous, 

 lower joints radicating, from eight to twelve feet high, three or four 

 inches in circumference near the base. — Leaves bifarious, sheathmg 

 sword-shaped, margins hispid, the rest smooth, with a white nerve 



