ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. 3.] (1910. 
XII.—GALLS ON AN INDIAN GRASS. 
(With Plate.) 
L. A. Boop.Le. 
ge lage ere ira of a grass were sent to Kew in 1908 
Sen , Conservator of F irri Bombay. 
he species are portions of plants of Ischaemum pilosum, Hack., 
and the peculiar feature about them is the presence i ‘upright 
leafless branches of a rather striking appearance 
Mr. Talbot, who was inclined to regard these specialised branches 
as pneumatophores, forwarded a number of specimens to Kew for 
further examination, with some a giving his own observations 
on their appearance and occurren 
An examination of these s aids has proved that the modified 
branches are really galls, the formation of which depends on the 
presence of a gall-insect. The material shows the nature and mode 
of formation of the gall, but does not include enough stages to 
render a complete account possible. It is to be hoped, therefore, 
that Mr. Talbot will be able to make further observations on the 
living plants, and to obtain a fuller history of the gall and the 
insect than can be given at presen 
Before describing my own observations on the structure of the 
galls, it will be useful to make some extracts from Mr. Talbot’s 
notes :— 
* Ischaemum pilosum, Hack., a widely distributed species mains? 
out the Deccan peninsula, Central bg stam mi other parts of 
the dry Indian region, grows, as far as I know, on all kinds of soil, 
and is particularly common on the Deccan Devas which ‘overlies 
the Trap, and in which it develops an extensive perennial under- 
ground system. The rhizomes are long, tough and wiry, somewhat 
resembling whipcord in appearance, and ramify below the surface 
of the ground, sometimes as deep down as 18 inches or 2 feet.’ 
The Deccan Regur is described as a “ hygroscopic lastic black 
soil, which contracts and expands in a remarkable degree under 
different conditions of moisture and dryness. After the first 
showers in June, when the hot season is over, the deep gaping 
fissures, which divide up the black soil into irregular masses, close, 
and the whole is converted into a highly plastic and impermeable 
(15747—6a.) Wt, 92—428. 1375, 4/10. D&S. 
e 
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