( 33 ) 



it the best fodder grass they have. In other districts it is said to be eaten 

 only by buffaloes, or by cattle when they are hungry and cannot obtain 

 other kinds of grass. It is much used for thatching. The spears which 

 when the spikes are ripe adhere in masses are called sali at Ajmere. In 

 Australia it is looked upon as a splendid grass for a cattle run, as it pro- 

 duces a great amount of feed. 



38. ANDROPOGON, Linn. A large genus containing about 100 

 described species. They are perennial grasses, usually •tall, and with 

 strong wiry stems. The spikelets are 1-flowered, arranged in pairs on 

 spikes which may be solitary,; in pairs, or several together. The rachis of 

 each spike is distinctly jointed where each pair of spikelets is given off, 

 one of each pair of spikelets being sessile and fertile, and the other is 

 stalked and sterile; the terminal joint has usually two stalked sterile 

 spikelets on either side of a sessile and fertile one. This genus is re- 

 presented in India by the khas-khas grass (A. muricatus), and two other 

 sweet-scented kinds (A. Schcenanthus and A. laniger); also by two or 

 three species known under the name of palwal or palwdn, and which are 

 more or less esteemed as useful fodder grasses. 



A. annulatus, ForsJc. (Plate XX.)* Syn. — Lepeocercis annulatus, 

 Nees : Vern. — Punjab: Palwdn (General), miniyar (Stewart), palwdnh 

 (Multan), palwal and parwal (S. E. Punjab) ; Bajputana : Bdhsi (Jey- 

 pur), Tcarr (Ajmere); N.-W. Prov. : Palmaha (Dehra Dun), jarga 

 (Etawah), janewar (Allahabad), nalli (Mainpuri), nilon (Aligarh) ; 

 Bundelkhand : Phulaira (Lalitpur) and donda or dunda (Banda) ; the 

 scandent form is called Jchel in the Lalitpur district ; Cent. Prov. : 

 Mdliyar (Chanda). 



Perennial. Stems branching, frequently subscandent; nodes hairy, 

 the lower ones often bent. Spikes 5-6, terminal, sub-digitate, nearly 

 sessile. Outer glume of the sessile hermaphrodite floret obtuse, and 

 usually ending in three blunt teeth. Flowering glume reduced to a long 

 bent and twisted awn four times as long as the spikelet. 



Common all over the plains of Northern India by roadsides and in 

 bushy places. It yields a considerable amount of fairly good fodder, 

 which is largely made use of. It is very similar in habit to A. Ischcemum 

 and A. pertusus, differing from the former by its blunt glumes, and from 

 the latter by the absence of the pit on the back of the outer glumes. 

 Specimens with the outer glumes 3-dentate at the apex have hitherto 

 been referred to A. Bladhii, Retz., but Prof. Hackel informs me that 

 the true A. Bladhii is a Chinese variety of A. annulatus. 



• Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are copied from Roxburgh's ori .xiial drawing of A Bladhii, Retz. 



