ON SELECT INDIAN PLANTS. 2,$$ 



Syn. Cut" ha y Darbha, Pavitra, 



Vulg. Cuslici . 



Koen. Poa Cynosur aides. 



Having never seen this most celebrated grass in a 

 state of perfect inflorescence, I class it according to 

 the information which Dr. Roxburgh has been so 

 kind as to send me. The leaves are very long, with 

 margins acutely sawed downwards, but smooth on 

 other parts, even on the keels, and with long points, 

 of which the extreme acuteness was proverbial among 

 the old Hindus. Every law-book, and almost every 

 poem in Sanscrit, contains frequent allusions to the ho- 

 liness of this plant ; and, in the fourth Veda we have 

 the following address to it at the close of a terrible in- 

 cantation : " Thee, O Darblia, the learned proclaim 

 " a divinity not subject to age or death ; thee they 

 * call the armour of Indra, the preserver of regions, 

 u the destroyer of enemies : a gem that gives increase 

 " to the field. At the time when the ocean resound- 

 " ed, when the clouds murmured, and lightnings 

 " flashed, then was Darbha produced, pure as a drcp 

 " of fine gold." Some of the leaves taper to a most 

 acute, evanescent point; whence the Pandits oheu 

 say of a very sharp- minded man, that his intellects arc 

 acute as the point of a. Cksvz-leaf. 

 13. Bandhu'ca : 

 Syn. Rcictaca , Bandhnpvoca. 

 V r CLG. Ba'ndhuiiy Ranjan. 

 Ltnn. Scarlet Ixora. 



Cal. Perianth four-parted, permanent; dkus, 

 coloured, erect, acute 



Cor. 



