2^2, BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS 



culms, and cut them into implements for writing on 

 their polished paper. From the miwja, or culm, of 

 the Sara was made the maunji, or holy thread, or- 

 dained by Menu to form the sacerdotal girdle, in pre- 

 ference even to the Cwm* grass. 

 ii. Du'rva': 

 Syn. 'Safaparvica\ Saliasraviryay BJia'rgai'i, Rudri, 



Anantii \ 

 Vulg. Dub, 

 Koen. Agrostis Linearis, 



Nothing essential can be added to the mere bo- 

 tanical description of this most beautiful grass, which 

 Van Rheede has exhibited in a coarse delineation 

 of its leaves only, under the barbarous appellation of 

 Beli-caraga. Its flowers, in their perfect state, are 

 among the loveliest objects in the vegetable world, 

 and appear, through a lens, like minute rubies and 

 emeralds in constant motion from the least breath of 

 air. It is the sweetest and most nutritious pasture for 

 cattle ; and its usefulness, added to its beauty, induced 

 the Hindus, in their earliest ages, to believe that it was 

 the mansion of a benevolent nymph. Even the Veda 

 celebrates it; as in the following text of the A'fhar- 

 •vana : " May Durva, which rose from the water of 

 u life, which has a hundred roots and a hundred 

 ** stems, efface a hundred of my sins, and prolong 

 <c my existence on earth for a hundred years !" The 

 plate was engraved from a drawing in Dr.Rox b i t rg h's 

 valuable collection of Indian grasses. 

 12. Cus'a, or Cus'ha, 



Syn, 



