20 
Other uses.—A good variety of this grass (“ Koda Millet”) is used 
in India as a food-grain by the poorer classes. The composition of 
“Koda Millet” (husked), is as follows :— 
In 100 parts. In 1 Ib. 
oz. gr. 
Water ass +F pS 35 bee fs aie7 i. 382 
Albuminoids : ea: ase rs a 70 es 1 22 
Starch Bs oes ee ae oe ee ice coat A et 
Oil be Ss e ey ise as 722 | 0 147 
Fibre — 8 abs kA an 07 O 49 
Ash 13 0 91 
(Church.) 
This grass is much used by the Fijians for strewing the floors of 
their houses and public buildings. (Seemann.) 
Hatitat and range.—Port Jackson to the Tweed, and westward as 
far as the Blue Mountains; also in New England and the other table- 
lands. Frequents damp places. Found also in Queensland and 
Northern Australia. Common in tropical and sub-tropical Asia and 
Africa ; also in the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. 
2. Paspalum distichum, Linn. 
Botanical name.—Distichum, Latin, consisting of two rows, applied 
(amongst other things), to the arrangement of grains in an ear of 
barley, having the spikelets in two rows. 
Synonym.—P. littorale, R. Br. 
Vernacular names.—‘‘ Silt Grass” is the name adopted by Baron 
von Mueller. “ Water Couch” is another name. “ Sea-side Millet ” 
is the name for the coast form. Knot-grass and Joimt-grass of the 
United States. 
Where jfigured—Buchanan, Flint, Ilust. North American Grasses, 
Agricultural Gazette. 
Botanical description (B. F\., vii, 460).—Stems often creeping and 
rooting in the sand to a great extent, the ascending extremities varying 
from short and entirely covered with the leaf-sheaths, to slender, 
1 foot long or more, with the leaves distant. 
Leaves either linear-lanceolate and flat or involute and almost subulate, glabrous, or 
with a few long hairs at the orifice of the sheath and base of the lamina. 
Spikes two, close together, or the lowest at a distance of 1 or 2 lines, quite glabrous, 
the rhachis not above 3 line broad. 
Spikelets sessile in two rows, oval-oblong, acute or acuminate, flat, 14 to nearly 2 lines 
long. 
Outer empty glumes equal and distinctly three-nerved. 
Fruiting glume hardened and very faintly three-nerved, or the central nerve alone 
perceptible. 
Botanical notes.—Bailey separates P. littorale from P. distichum, as 
a variety. Both are united in the Flora Australiensis. It is doubtful 
whether the normal species is truly indigenous in New South Wales. 
In any case it thrives remarkably well in the Colony. Bailey observes 
that the two forms preserve their characters when grown side by side. 
The normal form (“Silt Grass’) will not, he observes, stand the least 
salt-water. The variety littorale (“ Sea-side Millet”) “ has the same 
