378 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1S92. 



mucronate. The two lower glumes empty^ the lowermost acute, the 

 upper larger and produced into a short oblique mucro. Flowering 

 glume oblong, acute, its scabrid keel ending into a short mucro. 



This slender grass grows in the plains of North-Western India 

 and Aden. 



It is reckoned to be a good fodder grass. 



FBSTUOAOB^. 



Arundo-donax, Linn. This tall and beautiful grass with its 

 varieties are extensively cultivated in gardens all over India. 



It is common in the South of Europe, in the region bordered by 

 the Mediterranean Sea, and in East Asia. It may be said to be a 

 classical plant, as its culm was first used in the manufacture of 

 musical instruments, during the bucolic times, when man entirely 

 or chiefly led a pastoral life. The pipes, or flute of Pan, of 7 tubes, 

 the invention of which, is lost in the mists of antiquity, was made of 

 the culm of this plant. Virgil, in chanting the praises of Varus, 

 speaks of this plant thus : — 



Agrestem tenius meditahor arundine musam. 

 And in another place we read that this reed furnished the 

 arrow — 



JJtqiie levi Tejphyro gracilis vibrator arundo. 



The plant is now used for the support of vines and other climbing 

 plants, and also for many domestic purposes, walking sticks, fishing 

 and measuring rods being made of it and also musical pipes. The 

 reed often mentioned in the Bible is believed to be the culm of this 

 plant or of the following species. Both are common in Palestine. 

 The leaves are eaten by cattle. 



Pheagmites, Trin. 



This genus is closely allied to Arundo, the difierence being that in 

 Phragmites the lowest flower of the spikelet is male, 



P. Boxhurghi., Kunth., P. Kurlm, Roxb., Fl. Ind., I., 347. 



Vern. Beonal, or Deondl, Nal (Roxh.) , Karha (Watt), Naga-Sava, 

 Patoo-ederoo (Teling, Koxb.), Nuda-nar, N'arhut, Narhat, Narsal 

 Nar, Naria, Nai (Steward^ Duthie). 



Culm, erect, stout, perennial, piped, 6 — 12 feet high, covered 

 with the leaf sheath up to the inflorescence. Leaves flat, lanceolate, 



