JOINT GRASSES. 159 



its adhesiveness from the fact that the Tartar dah is 

 made use of, not only as a sword in war, but also in 

 peace for felling trees or cutting up firewood. Conse- 

 quently the friction on the handle is very great notwith- 

 standing, the gum adheres for years, except on the edge 

 or end of the handle, where the wood itself becomes less 

 or more worn. Even if these three last trees should not 

 become of any great value as articles of commerce-, they 

 would be ornamental and it would be difficult to say 

 what the value really might be without knowing fully 

 the quantities of milk, oil, or gum that each would yield, 

 and of that I can give no information. It would be easy 

 to obtain a few plants, or seeds, or nuts of them. 



JOINT GRASSES. 



This is not a grass that is generally known in India. 

 I never met with it in the South, North-west, or in 

 Bengal. It grows in the Tartar country ; generally in 

 the margins of forests, where there may not be too 

 much shade ; a forest being partially cleared, it springs 

 up in places where it perhaps never existed before, or 

 if it did, not for centuries past. The grass will run 

 to a length of some fifteen feet, and will rise, if there 

 be any support, five or six feet ; if not, it will grow up 

 some three or four feet by its own support. It is not a 

 wiry grass the joints are some six or eight inches long, 

 with four or five blades of grass about the same length 

 growing out from each joint. The joints near the ground 

 are harder and brittle those near the top soft and juicy 

 with a luxuriant termination of soft blades similar to 

 those from each joint, but are softer and thicker. On my 



