r50 Brigade-Siirgeon .1. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on Products 



Pen — kalm. 



Pens are imported into Afghanistan, I^orthern India, and 

 Kashmir from Persia. These are made of reeds, and are 

 highly vahied by the writers of manuscripts. At Sangun, in 

 Persia, I found in the gardens a grass called kalml, an 

 Erianthus (?), being cultivated for its reeds. The ordinary 

 pens are made from the reeds of the local grasses, ErianthUS 



PtAVENNiE and PHRAGMITES COMMUNIS. 



Pennisetum dichotomum, Del. Gramine^. 



Bamboo-grass, hdrsJwnk. At the skirts of the low hills, 

 on stony ground, in the Baluchistan Desert, this grass grew 

 in great luxuriance, producing long, woody, jointed, bamboo- 

 like, trailing stems, very different in habit to the same grass 

 in the Punjab. The stems in autumn were devoid of leaves, 

 and when collected in heaps for fodder looked like so many 

 twisted cuttings from the small bamboo. At first sight no 

 one expected that horses would eat these sticks as fodder, 

 but they did, and seemed to appreciate them. 



Pennisetum italicum, R Br,, is a synonym for 

 Setaria italica, Beavv. Italian millet. 



Pennisetum spicatum, Del. Gramine^. 



Spiked Millet — the hajrd of Hindustan. Common in 

 Baluchistan and on the Helmand, as a field crop. In the 

 rest of the country through which I passed it only occurred 

 as single plants here and there, through tobacco, cotton, and 

 melon fields. 



Pepper — Black Pepper, Piper nigrum ; Eed Pepper, 



Capsicum species. 

 Peppermint-scented — Ziziphora tenuior. 



Periploca aphylla, Dene. AscLEPiACACEiE. 



Huin, huma, um, tima ; hata (Punjabi). A common shrub 

 in the rocky parts of Baluchistan. Owing to its leafless habit 

 and rod-like stems it is somewhat similar in appearance to 

 Ephedra paciiyclada; they both go by the same names in 

 that district. 



