QRAMIXE.K 115 



SouGnuM. 



* S. VULGARE, PclS. (il ). 



Pyoiing. lied Jowar of India. Cholam iu Tamil. 



* S. SACCnAIUTUlI (M.). 



Valaiti Jowar of India. Dco-dhrm of Bengal. Impliec of Natal. 



This is one of the most estimable food and fodder plants we have, and when 

 carefully cultivated, a piomisiug source of sugar. One remarkable character it is said 

 to possess is that it is not attacked by white ants, which are so troublesome to the sugar- 

 cane. It is said, too, that this crop is lit to cut iu less than four months, after which 

 another will spring from the same roots, in the same time, and occasionally even a third. 

 The yield of sugar per acre is two tons. As a fodder plant it is unsurpassed, and it has 

 been said to yield as much as nine tons of dry fodder per acre. The plant is hardy, 

 and will thrive wherever Maize will grow. In good soil and when well waterc^d, it 

 ■will run up to IG feet in height. (See article in Balfour's Cyclopedia of India.) 



Sacchauum, ZiniKcics. 

 Spikelds 1 -flowered, awnless, surronnded by long silky hairs, in pairs, both 

 sessile, or 1 pedicellate along the branches of a large panicle. liachi.i articulate at 

 each pair. 2 outer emplij glumea keeled, thin but rather stiff. Tliird empty glume, 

 flowering ghme, and palca, all smaller and very thin and transparent. 



*S. OFFiciNAKO.M, L. (JI.). Cultivated. Unknown wild. 



Kyan. Sugar-cane. 



*S. vioLACEUM, Tussae. (M.). Cultivated. 



Otaheity cane. 



S. SPONTANEUM, L. (M.). Buruui. Ear Nicobar (K.). Ceylon. 



S. agyptiacum, "Willd. 

 S. soiiidecumbens and caudiculatum, Bo.xb. 



Thck-keh-gyi. Greater thatching grass. 



S. PEOCEUUM, Eoxb. Bengal. 



S. cAKALiccLATUM, Roxb. Bengal. 



S. SARA, Koxb. Bengal. 



Siira or Sarpat of India. 



S. FuscuM, Roxb. 



This species yields the best native pen or Icahim, and the stems are also used for 

 light fences. 



S. MUNJA, Roxb. Bengal. 



This grass is largely employed iu India for roijos, the leaves forming the munj 

 rope, and the culms that called sirki. Before nudung np, the leaves are wett(!d and 

 beaten, so as to separate the fibres, and the ropes are supposed to stand alternate 

 welting and drying well, but to require to be kept moistened, and the same remarks 

 apply to other sjjccies, as (S'. sura, tS. procerum, and others. 



Dr. Mason also gives other vernacular names for diiferent species of Saccharum. 

 La-mau-myit. Kaing. Kyanmai. Kyan-men. Boung-kyan. Ilti-poka-hsauhsa. 

 The " A'li/ig " grass is what Europeans"conimonly call Kleidiant-grass, and is, I think, 

 correctly referred to a species of Saccharum, ratlun- than to Tgpha, as Elephant-grass 

 is called in Balfour's Cyclopedia — a confusion probably arising from the specitie name 

 of 'f. elep/iantina ! 



Batratherium. 



B. LAXCEOLAiuM, Scliultz. Copomandel. 



LrPEOCERClS. 



L. SEr.EATA, Trin. Bengal. 



