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 117 1 382 



Albuminoids 7'0 1 52 



Starch 77 '2 12 154 



Oil 2-1 147 



Fibre 07 49 



Ash 1-3 91 



(Church.) 



This grass is much used by the Fijians for strewing the floors of 

 their houses and public buildings. (Seemann.) 



Habitat 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 Joint-grass of the 

 United States. 



Where figured. Buchanan, Flint, Illust. North American Grasses, 

 Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. FL, 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 J line broad. 



Spikelets sessile in two rows, oval-oblong, acute or acuminate, flat, 1^ 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 



