G96 PAXICAfli.U. 



in the southern parts of Europe, the assimilation to the warmer regions, in 

 this respect, is by no means inconsiderable. Donax arundinaceus, by its 

 height, reminds us of the bamboo ; while Saccharum Ravennae, S. Tenerif- 

 fae. Imperata arundinacea, Lagurus ovata, Lygeum Spartum, and the spe- 

 cies of Andropogon, -^gilops, &c,, by their separate sexes exhibit tropical 

 characters. The grasses are also less gregarious, 9.nd meadows occur sel- 

 domer in the south than in the north of Europe. (Extr. from Schouw, in 

 Jameson s philos.journ, April 1825, copied by Lindl.) 



What may be the amount of Indian species of grasses, hitherto disco- 

 vered, it is impossible for us to state, Nees von Esenbeck's synopsis of 

 Wight's and Royle's grasses not being procurable, and those enumerated 

 in Wall. Cat. still remaining in the hands of R. Brown. Supposing, how- 

 ever, the aggregate of the former to be 200, and the latter, after abstracting 

 common forms, to amount to 100, the sum total of discovered Indian grasses 

 will, on reducing Griffith's gramineous collections, probably be about 1300. 

 The collections stand thus : — 



Griffith, 270 from AfFganisthan ; 150 from the Peninsula of India; 128 

 from the Khassya Mountains; 100 from Assam; 100 from Serampore ; 

 93 from Mergui ; 73 from the Mishmee Hills; and 51 from Bhootan. 

 In all 965, but after abstracting common forms perhaps 800. 



Roxb.— 217.— Roijle and Wight.— 200 :— Wall. Cat. 131, reducible 

 perhaps to 100. 



As the Indian tropical grasses are abundant, and large in foliage, so do 

 the species which extend along the foot of the Himalayas form a grass 

 jungle sufficiently high to conceal the elephant and rhinoceros, while in 

 ascending, we find many of the same genera and species which are met 

 with in proceeding from the equator to the poles. The grasses found in 

 the plains of India, some of which are confined to the Peninsula, but many 

 of which are as common in the northern as in the southern plains, belong 

 to genera, of some of which a few species ascend the mountains, and are 

 found there at considerable elevations in the rainy season of the year. The 

 majority of these genera are Asiatic, and the greater number of their spe- 

 cies are contained in, and some of them confined to India ; but someoof the 

 genera are as characteristic of the floras of America, New Holland and 

 Africa. In the plains of N. India there are a few species likewise found in 

 European countries, or which belong to genera more like European than 

 Indian forms, f. ex. the common Uoob grass, {Ci/nodon Dactylon.) Among 

 the cold weather cultivation of wheat and barley, two European species are 

 very commonly found, viz. Loliiim temulentum, L. (the only grass, in its 

 normal state of a deleterious nature,) and Avena fatua, L. Though many of 

 the Graminese found in the Himalayas belong to genera of which the greater 

 number of species inhabit tropical situations, yet it is only in the rainy 

 season that these occur, and the mass of the grasses, like that of the vege- 

 tation in general of these mountains, will be found to be analogous to that 

 of Eur.:pean countries ; and many of those very species which are most 



