362 JOUBkAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



Ver. — SJiapia, Kal, Usar-hi-ghas. 



The whole plant glabrous, culms extensively creeping, ramous, 

 with 4-8 in. of the extremity erect, smooth, filiform and very firm. 

 Ligula short, ciliated. Leaves chiefly at the base of the stem, very* 

 small and smooth, glabrous, tapering to a fine point. Panicle erect, 

 linear or pyramidal. Branches verticillate, adpressed, 1-2 in. long. 

 Spikelets many, 1 lin. long. Outer glume obtuse, almost hyaline, 

 and very short. The second empty glume is nearly equal to the 

 flowering glume. 



Received specimens only from West Khandeish, where it is said to 

 be reckoned as good fodder grass. I have reason to believe that 

 it grows also in other districts of this Presidency, especially in 

 dry, sandy, or saline soils. 



" This grass is strictly confined to saline soils, and is found on all 

 the usar tracts in Northern India, often constituting the entire 

 vegetation. As such it is not only useful as an unmistakable 

 indicator of reh -infected soils, but also by affording an abundant 

 supply of fodder over large areas of land where other plants are 

 unable to exist. The experiments now being undertaken at Aligarh 

 and Cawnpore for the reclamation of reh-infected land are of great 

 interest in regard to the changes affecting the growth of this grass. 

 The immediate effect of excluding all cattle from usar land is the 

 production of a more luxuriant growth of the usar grass, and its 

 rapid extension over what were formerly bare efflorescent patches. 

 At the same time other kinds of grasses quickly take advantage of 

 the improved condition of the soil consequent on the more vigorous 

 growth of the usar grass ; for the thicker coating of usar grass 

 helps to moderate the scorching rays of the sun, and in this way 

 diminishes the upward capillary movement, of reh salts. On all 

 usar tracts there are usually to be seen patches of various sizes 

 scattered here and there, usually in the form of ridges or mounds. 

 These raised portions are nearly always found to support an 

 assortment of plants indicating a distinctly different condition of 

 soil compared to that of their surroundings. Vuh and other 

 valuable grasses form a large proportion of vegetation of these raised 

 patches, and are ever ready to encroach wherever the ground in 

 their immediate neighbourhood becomes fitted for their existence. 



