62 



INDIAN FOREST MEMOIRS. 



(3) This covering of cut grass by interfering with the access of light should to a 



considerable extent prevent the production of vigorous young culms. 



If leafy branches of trees and shrubs could be strewn over the cut grass the 

 latter would be kept in position and the shade increased. 



(4) When the cut grass and branches become thoroughly dry in the cold or begin- 



ning of the hot season they should be fired and the area ploughed if possible. 



(5) If the grass was still found to be vigorous, it should be again allowed to develop 



and be again cut over m July before flowering but when a fairly vigorous 

 regrowth of young leafy culms had taken place and the same treatment 

 repeated. 



This treatment would undoubtedly to a great extent prevent flowering and the spread 

 of the grass by seed, and as the production and development of leafy culms would be 

 practically prevented during half the normal period of vegetative activity annually, the 

 treatment should have a progressively weakening effect on the plant. 



It is possible that in some cases firing in May followed by heavy and continued grazing 

 by buffaloes might be effective. In some localities it has been suggested that flooding the 

 fields to a depth of 2 — 3 feet might smother and kill the grass, but a possible result of such 

 treatment, which moreover is not easy to put into practice, would be to produce the most 

 vigorous form of the species, viz. variety nepalense. 





References. 



Distribution. 



Saccharum Mun]a, Roxb. (Plates III and XIX — XXI.) 



F. B. I., VII, 119 (under S. arundinaceum in part only). 



H., 118 (under S. ciliare Anderss. excl. vars. ft and y); P., II, 1189. 



Chiefly found in Northern India, in the Punjab and Upper Gangetic Plain. 



Vernacular 



Name. 



Culm. 



Leaf •sheath. 



A. — Description. 



Munj, munja, sar, sarkara, ekar (Dehra Dun). 



Erect, attains a height of 18 ft. and dia. 0-5 in. 



In dry unfavourable localities the height is much less, often not exceeding 6 or 7 ft. 



Pale straw-coloured, smooth, striate and solid. 



Shortly silky at extreme base, otherwise quite smooth, striate, pale straw-coloured. 



Villous on margins at apex with long white hairs. Longer and usually much longer 

 than proper internode, uppermost sheath sometimes extending beyond the base of the 

 panicle. 



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