302 



spathe, and many chafFy bracts. The whole plant is aromatic. It is 

 particularly mentioned by Arrian in his account of Alexander's 

 journey through the Punjaub and Sind, and was gathered by the 

 Phcenician followers of the army in Lus, who called it Spikenard. 

 It is common about Kurrachee, and is used as a scent by the 

 natives. It may be found in the Ahmedabad Zillah, but we think 

 there must be some mistake as to its having been found in the 

 moist Concan, as stated in Graham's Catalogue. 



7. A Nardoides, Nees. Fl. Afr. Austr. 116 — Culm erect, 

 simple, tall, 6 feet high, very smooth, and like the preceding, filled 

 with pith ; ligula large, ovate ; leaves from a broad amplexicaul 

 base broadly linear, upwards of a foot in length, and nearly 

 2 inches broad ; margins rough, sheaths smooth ; spikes twin, few- 

 flowered, between fasciculate and panicled, reflexed, forming a 

 supra-decompound narrow, elongated panicle ; rachis and pedicels 

 silvery, strigose ; spikelets smooth. A native of the South of 

 Africa and, strange to say, also of Kandeish, where a valuable 

 aromatic oil, called " Cusha," is manufactured from it. Syn. A 

 calamus aromaticus, Royle ; A pachnodes, Trinius. 



8. A PuMiLus, Roxb. Fl. Ind. — Culms branched, smooth, 

 erect, 12 inches high; leaves rather small, particularly the floral 

 ones, which are almost reduced to sheaths ; panicle composed of 

 numerous axillary and terminal conjugate, hirsute, secund spikes, 

 elevated on slender-jointed peduncles, embraced by many dehcate 

 chaffy bracts at the base ; flowers in pairs on the joints of the 

 haiiy rachis, one sessile bisexual, the other peduncled and male; 

 glumes of hermaphrodite flower cuspidate. About Surat. 



9. A Glaber, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i, p 267. — Root perennial; 

 culms suberect, much-branched, smooth, 3 to 4 feet high ; leaves 

 glossy, smooth ; panicle ovate verticelled, ramifications simple or 

 2 to 3 cleft ; flowers paired, hermaphrodite one sessile and awned, 

 male pedicelled, awnless ; glumes smooth, purple-coloured ; exterior 

 valve pitted on the back. This is one of the common fodder 

 Grasses of the Deccan. Native name " Tambut." 



10. A MuHiCATus, Retz. Obs. iii, 95; and v, 20. — Culm erect, 

 compressed, 5 to 6 feet high ; nodes smooth ; leaves linear-narrow, 

 sub-bifarious, rigid, elongated ; panicle verticelled ; branches very 

 many, simple, and spreading ; joints of the rachis smooth ; glumes 

 minutely prickly on both sides, subequal, muricated. This is the 

 Grass whose roots are aromatic, particularly when moistened with 

 water, and from which the tatties called " Khuskus" are made. 

 Syn. Anatherum muricatum, Beauv. Agr. i. 22 ; Andropogon squar- 

 rosus, Linn ; Phalaris zizanioides, Linn. ; Vetiveria odorata, Virey. 



