PREFACE 



r I ^HIS book is intended to serve as a guide to the study of 

 grasses of the plains of South India. For the past few 

 years I have been receiving grasses for identification, almost 

 every week, from the officers of the Agricultural and Forest 

 Departments and others interested in grasses. The require- 

 ments of these men and the absence ot a suitable book 

 induced me to write this book. 



I have included in this book about one hundred grasses 

 of wide distribution in the plains of South India. Many of 

 them occur also in other parts of India. The rarer grasses 

 of the plains and those growing on the hills are omitted, with 

 a view to deal with them separately. 



The value of grasses can be realized from the fact that 

 man can supply all his needs from them alone, and their 

 importance in agriculture is very great, as the welfare of the 

 cattle is dependent upon [grasses. Farmers, as a rule, take 

 no interest in them, although profitable agriculture is impos- 

 sible without grasses. Very few of them can give the names 

 of at least half a dozen grasses growing on their land. They 

 neglect grasses, because they are common and are found 

 everywhere. They cannot discriminate between them. To 

 a farmer " grass is grass " and that is all he cares to trouble 

 himself about. About grasses Robinson writes " Grass is 

 King. It rules and governs the world. It is the very foun- 

 dation of all commerce ; without it the earth would be a 

 barren waste, and cotton, gold, and commerce all dead." 



In the early days when the population was very much 

 limited and when land not brought under cultivation was 

 extensive plenty of green grasses was upon it and pastures 

 were numerous. So the farmer paid no attention to the 

 grasses, and it did not matter much. But now, population 

 has increased, unoccupied land has decreased very much and 

 the cattle have increased in number. Consequently he has 

 to pay more attention to grasses. 



On account of the scarcity of fodder, people interested 

 in agriculture and cattle rearing have very often imported 



