848 



forms a good foundation for jilaster-floors, in demand by brick- 

 makers, garden screens are made of them, occasionally serve 

 for arrows, and till the introduction (in the viith centurj') of 

 pens made from the quills of birds, they were used for writing; 

 the young shoots when cut off from the root where not exposed 

 to the Hght make an excellent pickle, the creeping stems are 

 very nutritious and might be used as fodder in times of scarcity, 

 Britain (Syme, Eng. Bot. xi. (1872) p. 59); cattle eat the young 

 grass and it is collected largely for fodder in Afghanistan 

 (Watt, 1.0.) ; the young tops have been recommended for feeding 

 stock, Britain (Leaflet No. 34, 1915, Ministry of Agric. " Autumn 

 & Winter Fodder," pp. 2-3). In Sweden the country people 

 use the panicle to dye woollen cloth green (Syme, I.e.). 



There are specimens of paper made of tliis reed, in the 

 Museum at Kew, one sample made of reeds grown on the banks 

 of the Tay, near Errol (1876) one of reeds grown at Keyhaven, 

 near Milford-on-Sea (1916) and a sample of so-called ''Delta 

 Grass '* Pulp made from a grass (believed to be this species) 

 gro^^ing at the mouth of the Danube, 



A perennial, culms erect, 4-10 ft. high; found on grassy 

 islets and on low banks in many parts of the river (Niger) in 

 Nupe (Barter, I.e.), a tall grass, shore of Lake Chad (Elliott, 

 Herb. Kew), by rivers, Sokoto, Katagum (Dalziel, Herb. Kew; 

 Hausa Bot. Voc. p. 31 — Arundo Doiiax); grows in marshes, 

 around springs and along lakes and streams throughout the 

 United States (Hitchcock, I.e.); recommended as a good soil 

 binder on banks of rivers of Britain where much of the lowland 

 of our larger rivers has been reclaimed partly by the growth of 

 this reed (Syme, I.e.), and extensive fens are covered with it; 

 valued also for binding loose soils in India where it is found in 

 the plains of the North-West and up to 14,000 ft. on the Punjab 

 Himalaya (Watt, I.e.). " Plav " is a floating fen formed of 

 reed^ — Phragmites communis, Trin. var. fiavescens, Gren. & 

 Godr., built up almost entirely of vertical reed-rhizomes, wliich 

 with the aid of their roots, retain much soil (Pallis, Journ. Linn. 

 Soc. seq, p. 271) and the description is stated to apply also to 

 the reed of East Anglia {Phragmites communis, Trin.) which 

 gives rise to the '' Fens '' of the Norfolk Broads (l.c^ p. 246). 



Ref, — *' Roseau k Balais {Arundo phragmites) in Les PL 

 Industrielles, Ileuze, pp. 301-303 (Libr. Agric. de la Maison 



Rustique, Paris, 1893). "The Structure and History of 



Plav : the Floating Fen of the Delta of the Danube,'' Marietta 

 PalHs, in Journ. Liim. Soc. xlii, July 7th, 1916, pp. 233-288, 

 illustrated — having special reference to Phragmites. 



Akistida, Linn. 

 Aristida Adscensionis, Hook, f., Fi. Trop. Afr. ined. 



IIL—Ca,v. Ic. V. t. 471, f. 2 {A. intcmijM)] \L i. 589, f. 1 

 {A. elatior);^ Jacq. Eclogae Gram. t. 6 {A. divaricata); Desfont. 

 Fl. Atlant. i. t. 21, f. 2 {A. coendescens var. typica)\ Kunth, 



