114 INDIAN FOREST MEMOIRS. 



The aerial culms usually die back after flowering, but their lower internodes 



occasionally persist and tertiary culms are sometimes produced from the lower nodes of the 



secondary culms. 



susceptiMi- 95. In this locality the present species is 



DamaJeT usually dominant in dry localities and here it usually shows a well-marked period of rest 



during December — January. 



During these months the clumps contain only the old culms which flowered the preced- 

 ing September — November, while next year's culms are visible as large buds below, or 

 close to, the ground surface. 



Although the species has a tufted habit and usually occurs on dry sandy soil, it is not 

 as a rule severely damaged by an early fire, owing to the fact that the young culms are 

 still, as a rule, below the ground surface and well-protected by their imbricating scaly 

 leaves. 



The majority of the leaf -bearing branches of the mature culms also spring from the 

 upper internodes of the culms and an early fire which destroys the dry inflammable leaves 

 on the mature culms does not, as a rule, develop a dangerous intensity of heat at the base 

 of the clumps in the neighbourhood of the buds from which the next season's culms will be 

 developed. 



This species therefore is as a rule less subject to severe damage by an early fire than is 

 Saccharum Munja for instance. 



D. — Economic. 



96. Lisboa writes as follows regarding this 

 species : — 



" In Mount Aboo it is reckoned as a good fodder grass and the grain used as food by the 

 natives," and under the name of Andropogon serrulatus, Trim, he adds : " Said to be good 

 fodder, used much in Poona, but reports from other places unfavourable." 1 



In the local Siwalik Division it is one of the most valuable fodder grasses. 



1 List of Bombay Grasses by J. C. Lisboa, 1896, p. 81. 



I. 114 ] 



