. BOMBAY OEASSES. 37» 



in luxuriant plants, 12—20 feet long, and about an inch broad, 

 margins scabrous. 



Panicle loose, 1-li feet long, erect, composed of numerous filiform » 

 scabrous branches, generally of a purplish-brown colour. Spikelets 

 numerous, crowded, flowers 3-5 in each. Glumes oblong, lanceolate, 

 4 — 5 lin. long. Inferior flower male, its flowering glume linear, 

 subulate. Superior flowers hermaphrodite. Glumes glabrous, 

 but they are covered with long silky hairs from the rachis. 



P. angustifolia, P. nejialensis, Nees, and Aritndo hifaria, Retz., 

 appear to be varieties of P. communis. Trin. Kunth. Enum. I. 251. 

 It grows all over India ; in this Presidency, it is rare, occurs chiefly 

 near the margins of rivers and lakes. I have before me at present 

 specimens received from Dhund. The creeping root is very long, 

 often measuring several feet. The large panicles, when dry, form 

 an ornament for vases for the drawing room, &c. Pipes are made 

 of the culms, particularly those used by the people who carry about 

 dancing snakes. The common Durma mats of Bengal are made of 

 the stalks split open. Vessels from the port of Calcutta are gener- 

 ally dunnaged with them. Roxb. 



Phragmites communis has a very extensive range. 



From the hollow reeds he fashioned. 



Flutes so musical and mellow, 



That the brook, the Sebowisha, 



Ceased to murmur in the woodland, 



That the woodbirds ceased from singing, 



And the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 



Ceased his clatter on the oak-tree, 



And the rabbit, the Wabasso. 



Sat upright to look and listen. 



Longfellow's " Hiawatha." 



Elyteophoras, Beauv. 



E. Articulatus, Beauv., Agr., 14, fig. 2; Dalz. and Gibs., Bomh. 

 n., 316; Dactylis spicata, Willd. in Nov. Act., iii, 415. Echinahj- 

 smm strictum, Trin., Fund., 1 42. 



Ver. Kemshi, Jungli Bala (small seed); Chimansar, Poslie, Suria^ 

 Ket kapuri, Balha Kolhati. 



An erect glabrous annual 6 inches to 1 foot high including the 

 inflorescence. Sheaths loose. Leaves flat, longer than the culm. 



