HOLE : SOME INDIAN GRASSES AND THEIR CECOLOGY. 79 



The leaves are largely used for thatching and also constitute a valuable paper material. 

 Air. William Raitt, the paper expert, in an article dealing with the relative value of 

 possible paper materials alludes to this grass as follows : — 



■ It is impossible to deal at length with all the fibrous grasses known, but as types of 

 the classes most worthy of attention we may refer to three species which have already 

 proved of value for paper-making. 



Muriz (Saccharum Sara) — a reed-like grass found on chur and waste lands in 

 Northern India. Very gregarious in habit, growing in dense thicket-like masses, which 

 can be cut and collected at low cost. Being generally found in the neighbourhood of rivers, 

 the economic radius of collection is widened by the possibilities of water transport. 

 Yields an excellent, easily bleached pulp, similar to that of wheat straw." 1 



This species also has considerable value on account of its power of fixing unstable soil 

 and of preventing the drifting of sand. It is not infrequently found in stream beds where 

 it has successfully resisted the force of the water, each clump forming a nucleus for the 

 accumulation of sand and debris. 



Duthie writes as follows on this point : " At Jeypur it is extensively used as a sand- 

 binding plant; and the experiments which have been undertaken there for arresting the 

 movement of sand prove it to be very suitable for the purpose." 2 



Saccharum Narenga, Wallich ex Hackel in Monogr. Androp. (7889), p. 119. (Plates XII 



and XXIII— XXV.) 



Syn. Saccharum porphyrocomum, Hackel, I.e., p. 120. 

 ? Saccharum exaltatum, Roxb., I.e., 245. 



F. B. I., VII, 120; H., 119. References. 



P., II, 1188. 



The Sub-Himalayan tract from Dehra Dun to Assam, Bengal, Central India and Distribution. 

 Burma. Extends to China. 



A/ — Description. 



Kanwal (Dehra Dun), Bata (Goalpara, Assam), Barota (Sibsagar, Assam). vernacular 



Erect, attains a height of 16 ft. and diameter of 0-5 in. Solid. cnim." 



Quite smooth and polished except immediately below the leaf insertions and the base 



of the panicle, where it is densely bearded with long adpressed white hairs. 



Covered with bulbous based hairs, especially towards the apex; the hairs easily break Loaf-sheath. 



off and old sheaths are often rough with their persistent bases. 



1 Tropical Agriculturist, Vol. XXXIII, July 1909, pp. 10—12. 



2 Fodd?r Grasses of Northern India by J. F. Dnthie, p. 25. 



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