158 CYNODON. 



In the East Indies the doob grass, as it is there 

 called, grows luxuriantly, and is highly valued as 

 food for horses, etc. It flowers in September, and 

 the seed is ripe about the end of October, and some- 

 times in November. The plants, natives of the Eng- 

 lish coast, flower about a month earlier than the 

 above. 



This plant has long been naturalized in the South- 

 ern States, and there are few grasses growing in the 

 South that so much has been said and written about 

 than the grass. 



Elliott described it as a tender, delicate grass, 

 growing over and binding the most arid and loose 

 lands in the country, and apparently preferred by 

 stock of all descriptions to every other grass in the 

 Southern States. 



L. H. Girardin, of Baltimore College (1824), said of 

 it : The excellence of this plant for pasturage is evi- 

 denced by two circumstances. It is preferred by 

 stock of every description (South) to all other grasses, 

 and it grows luxuriantly in every kind of soil. It 

 possesses an additional advantage — that of binding 

 the loosest and most barren sandy tracts, but when 

 it has once taken possession of close, rich soil, its 

 extirpation is so difficult as almost to defy all the 

 skill, industry, and perseverance of farmers. 



T. Affleck, of Brentham, Texas, who has given 

 more attention to the history and cultivation of this 

 grass than, perhaps, any other man in the country, 

 says of it : 



"I made my first working acquaintance with this 

 grass in 1842. From the first, 1 was satisfied of its 

 immense value to the South as a hay and pasture 

 grass. At the same time, it was evidently a dreadful 



