151 



is being given to grass and relatively less to cotton, and better 

 methods and implements of cultivation are being employed. Still, 

 it seems probable, from the reports received, that at the present time 

 a majority of farmers would prefer not to have it on their farms. It 

 seeds very sparingly in the United States, and as the imported seed 

 is not always to be had, and is expensive and often of poor quality, 

 those who have desired to cultivate it on a large scale have seldom 

 been able to do so. It is generally used as a lawn grass, and to hold 

 levels or railroad embankments, and for small pastures." (Vasey.) 



"Perhaps no one plant represents more value to the south than does 

 ' Bermuda' ; certainly no other forage plant is more precious to that 

 section. Whether for hay or for pasturage, it is everywhere placed 

 first, and is considered the most nutritious grass that can be success- 

 fully grown in the Southern United States. While it requires a fertile 

 soil for its best development, it will grow on the thinnest soil, being 

 a common plant of sea-beaches. In such situations the plants are 

 very small, the erect flowering stems being quite short, and long 

 sterile shoots (sometimes 6 feet long), rooting at every joint, are pro- 

 duced. In better land a light loamy soil seems to suit it best, the 

 tendency to send out long creeping shoots is checked, the upward 

 growth is much greater, and the amount of leafage increases corre- 

 spondingly, the whole plant becoming' much taller and succulent. 

 Besides its great value as a forage plant, Bermuda is one of the most 

 effective of soil holders. When growing on sandy river banks and 

 ocean beaches it is, apparently, the most valuable sand-binding grass 

 of the Southern States. It is sometimes planted by roadsides and 

 upon embankments for this purpose, and is a favourite lawn grass in 

 most towns and cities, forming a close, fine turf, and remaining green 

 in the driest and most sun-exposed situations." (Kearney.) 



Other uses. — Used largely in medicinal preparations by the natives 

 of India, and also by them for some sacred and ceremonial purposes. 

 It really does possess some medicinal properties, as certified to by 

 properly qualified medical men in India. For further particulars, 

 Watts' Dictionary of the Economic Products of India may be referred 

 to. 



Habitat and range. — Found in all the colonies except Tasmania ; 

 well diffused in New South Wales. 



" This is a common and troublesome weed in all hot and some 

 temperate countries, and although generally spread over the settled 

 parts of extra-tropical Australia, it may have been introduced as 

 suggested by R. Brown." (Benth.) 



73. CHLOEIS. 



Spikelets one-flowered, awned, singly sessile in two rows on one side 

 of simple spikes, either solitary or digitate at the end of the peduncle, 

 the rhachis of the spikelet articulate immediately above the outer 

 glumes. 



Outer empty glumes two, keeled, persistent, awnless. 



