196 HORTLS CHAMINEIJS AVOBL H N K N SI S . 



hothouse, contained a superior quantity of nutritive matter 

 to that cultivated ui the open air in the Grass Garden, in the 

 proportion nearly of 39 to 31 ; and the woody fibre afforded 

 by the grass of the plants cultivated in the hothouse ex- 

 ceeded the woody fibre contained in the grass of the plants 

 cultivated in the open air in the proportion of 4 to 3. 



In the East Indies the doob -grass grows luxuriantly, and 

 is highly valued as food for horses, &c. ; in this climate, 

 however, it scarcely begins to vegetate till the month of 

 June : and the above details show that its produce and nu- 

 tritive powers here are not suthciently great to hold out any 

 hope, that its valuable properties in the East Indies can be 

 made available in the climate and soil of Britain. 



Sir William James, in his works, gives a figure of the 

 doob-grass. The essential specific characters of the grass, 

 as exhibited in the figure given by Sir William Jones, and 

 those which our figure present, are precisely the same ; the 

 greater size or luxuriance of growth indicated by trie former 

 figure, is clearly the effects of climate, one plant being the 

 produce of the East Indies, and the other the growth of 

 England. 



Sir William Jones observes, *' That every law-book, and 

 almost every poem, in Sanscrit, contains frequent allusions 

 to the holiness of this plant; and in the fourth Veda we have 

 the following address to it, at the close of a terrible incanta- 

 tion : — ' Thee, O Darbha ! the learned proclaim a Divinity 

 not subject to age or death ; thee they call the armour of 

 Indra, the preserver of regions, the destroyer of enemies, a 

 gem that gives increase to the fields ; at the time when the 

 ocean resounded, when the clouds murmured and lightnings 

 flashed, then was Darbha produced, pure as a drop of fine 

 gold.' — Again, 'May Durva, which rose from the water of 

 life, which has a hundred roots and a hundred stems, efface 

 a hundred of my sins, and prolong iny existence on earth for 

 a hundred years.' " 



The doob-grass flowers in September, and the seed is ripe 

 about the end of October, and sometimes in November. The 

 plants, natives of the English coasts, flower about a month 

 earlier than the above. 



