823 



surface and cover lightly \Adth soil. When ready to cut, the 

 grass is very thick and stands about 18 in. high; it has been 

 found to grow slower than *^ Guinea Grass " {Panicum 

 maximum) and does not give the same out-turn. A plot (Poona^ 

 India) when fully estabhshed, cut twice at intervals of 87 days^ 

 yielded at the first cutting 10,700 lb. and at, the second cutting 

 18,020 lb. of green fodder per acre (Kew Bull, seq.. Rep. Gov. 

 Exp. Farm, Poona, March 31st, 1894, p. 5). The grass is largely 

 'cultivated for pasturage in Brazil, where it is considered unequalled 

 for the quantity of the feed which it produces (Vasey, Agric. 

 Grasses, p. 35). It is regarded as one of the best fodder grasses 

 for milch-cows in Abyssinia (Schweinfurth, PI. Utile Eritrea, 

 p. 53). In British Guiana, Para grass that had^ been reaped 

 on the same ground for several years in succession without 

 manure, ploughing or replanting, in five mowings in the year 

 gave 411 tons per acre (Kew Bull. 1897, p. 209). 



Ref, — ■" Panicum muticiim^^^ in *' Tropical Fodder Grasses,"' 



Kew Bull. 1894, pp. 384-385. " Para Grass {Panicum. 



barbinode) " in Forage Plants and Their Culture, Piper, pp. 253- 

 254 (The Macmillan Co. New York, 1915). 



* 



AxoNOPUS, P. Beauv. 



Axonopus compressus, P. Beauv.; Fl. Trop. Afr. IX. p. 566. 



. ItL — Trinius, Sp. Gram. Ic. t. 118 {Paspalum platycaule); 

 Lamson-Scribner, U.S. Dept. Agric. Agrost. Bull, No. 7, 1897 

 p. 42, f. 24 {Paspalum compressum); Teysmannia, xxiv. 1913, 

 t. 8 (P. platycaulon) ; Agric. Gaz. N.S- Wales, xxx. Sept. 2, 1919, 

 p. 636, f. 3 (P. compressum); Lyman Carrier, U.S. Dept. Agric. 

 Farmers' Bull No. 1030, 1920, pp. 5, 6, 11; Hitchcock, Grasses, 

 U.S. Dept. Agric. Bull. No. 772, 1920, p. 224, f. 135. 



Vernac. names. — Boni (Sierra Leone, Thomas), — Carpet Grass^ 



Louisiana Grass, ^ . . 



Lagos, Brass River, Opobo, in S. Nigeria; also Sierra Leone, 

 French Guinea, Ivory Coast, and the Belgian Congo ; in Tropical 

 America, West Indies ; Southern and South-Eastern N. America,, 

 Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Singapore, Java, etc. Intro- 

 duced from America to N.S. Wales. 



A pasture grass in the West Indies, S. United States and 

 N.S, Wales and in regions where it thrives as a pasture grass it 

 may be grown as a lawn-grass (Hitchcock, I.e. p. 224). 



A perennial \-2 ft. liigh growing in small tufts from a slender 

 rhizome ; thrives in a tropical cHmate with a good ramfaU, likes 

 rich soil : but will grow on comparatively poor soils. -It is the 

 predominant pasture grass in the United States from Virginia 

 to Florida and Texas in the lowland along the Coast, in alluvial 

 ground; but is of Httle importance on sandy soil and does not 

 thrive in the uplands (I.e.). Many of the old cotton fields in 

 the United States are stated to be thickly set with Carpet Grass 

 and it is said to grow better than " Bermuda Grass " {Cynodon 



