GRASSES FERr-vi;. 157 



turn lyphoideum, Eleusine corscana, Paspalum scroUculatuniy 

 Panicum mUiaceum. 



Poa cynosuroides, another species of grass, called aU''ha 

 and darbha by the natives, is held in peculiar favour by 

 them, — so much so, that, according to Sir William Jones, 

 " every law-book, and almost every poem in Sanscrit, con- 

 tains 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 incantation : — ' Thee, O Darbha, the 

 learned proclaim a divinity, not subject to age or death ; 

 thee they call the armour of India, the preserver of regions, 

 the destroyer of enemies ; a gem that gives increase to the 

 Held. At the time when the ocean resounded, when the 

 clouds murmured, and lightnings flashed, then v^'as Darbha 

 produced, pure as a drop of line gold !' Some of the leaves 

 taper to a most acute evanescent point ; whence the pundits 

 often say of a very sharp-mindf.'d man, that his intellects 

 are acute as the point of ciis'a leaf."* 



In regard to the F'dices and families of the acotyledonous 

 class, little has hitherto been done to elucidate the Indian 

 flora. We are, however, in possession of materials, which 

 will, to a certain extent, supply this desideratum. It has 

 already been stated that the collection in the East India 

 Company's Museum contains between four and five hundred 

 species of fern. Some of these have been represented and 

 described in the Icov.es Filiaim, by Hooker and Greville, 

 and the publication of the remainder will be undertaken by 

 the same gentlemen at no distant period. We have re- 

 ceived from Dr. W^allich many interesting mosses and he- 

 paticce, some of which have already been given to the 

 world in Dr. Hooker's Musci Exotici ; and by Dr. Wight 

 we have already been put in possession of about one hun- 

 dred species of Alga, Of the Indian Fungi very little is 

 known, and but few species have reached us. The natives 

 hold them " in such detestation, that Yama, a legislator, 

 supposed now to be the judge of departed spirits, declares 

 that ' those who eat mushrooms, whether springing from 

 the ground or growing on a tree, are fully equal in guilt to 

 the slayers of Bramins, and the most despicable of all 

 deadly sinners.' "t 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 2J3. j Ibid. vol. iv. p. 311 



Vol. III.— O 



