LIST OF GRASSES FROM ASMEDABAD AND SURAT. Ill 



as fixing nomenclature and as affording a bird's-eye view of the 

 distribution of species. 



Tlie specimens recorded in this list have been in all cases of doubt 

 identified for me by Mr. R. K. Bhide of the Agricultural College, 

 Poona, a recognised authority on Indian grasses ; and my thanks are 

 due to him as well as to Dr. H. H. Mann and Mr. W. Burns for 

 advice and assistance from time to time. 



In the accompanying list the ecological associates of the various 

 species are mentioned whenever they are sufficient^ certain and 

 obvious. Besides this I have distinguished the following types of 

 prevalence : — Dominant (D,), in the case of those grasses which are 

 sufficiently powerful to form the basis of the vegetation over fairly 

 large tracts of, say, an acre or two ; subclominant (SD.) where the 

 species is too slender or delicate to form the basis of a vegetation, 

 but is sufficientlj'- powerful to occur in patches of, say, a square yard 

 or two here and there, or to straggle erratically in lines or veins, 

 and sporadic (Spor.) where the species is so slender as to occur only 

 as single plants whether commonly or rarely. Of course the large 

 majority of plants are sporadic in the above sense, but in every type 

 of vegetation there must be a dominant form, and grasses owing to 

 their hardiness more often furnish the dominant species than any 

 other natural order. 



The nomenclature followed is that of Cooke, except in the case of 

 the hitherto unrecorded species, where I have entered the names as 

 given by Mr. Bhide from Hooker's Flora of British India. These 

 species are marked with an asterisk. 



Cultivated species and garden escapes are not mentioned. 



1. Pennisetum, Pers. 



1. P. cenchroides, Rich. 



Very common at Ahmedabad in association with Cenchrus bifiorus, Roxb. 

 These two form the principle early fodder both in compounds and on the 

 borders of fields. Cooke's date of flowering (December) is quite wrong so 

 far as N. Gujerat is concerned, where they flower in June and July. (D.) 



2. P. setosum, Rich. 



An alien, only observed in the grass plot at the Bhadar, Ahmedabad, where 

 famine grass had been stored in 1911-12, and so probably seeded from that 

 grass. 



3. P. pedicillatum, Trin. 



An alien, in the same circumstances as P. setosum. 



2. Ceh"chkus, L. 



1. C. bifiorus, Roxb. 



Abundant at Ahmedabad in association with Pennisetum cenchroides, Rich, 

 (q. v.). Very hardy and flowers spasmodically right through the dry season. 

 (D). 



2. C, catharticus, Delile. 



Common in all sandy wasteland, sandy fields and riversides at Ahmedabad. 

 Plowers mid-monsoon. The spikelets of this grass, which are easily detach- 

 ablejfrom the rachis and are viscid, are most troublesome when walking, as 



