NOTES ON GRASSES GROWING IN CEYLON. 



5 



ab Es. Said to be rare in the Uva district and possibly 

 introduced, En. p. 370. 



149. Aristida adscensionis, Linn, A. gigantea, L. fil. 

 A. caerulescens, Desf, A. canadensis, Willd. A setaceus, 

 Moon, Cat. Ceylon plants, p. 9, not of others? iEt-tuttiri, 

 Sinhalese, Chaetaria species, Beauv., and others. I follow 

 Mr. Ball in his Spicilegiurn Florae Maroccanas in Linn. Jl. 

 vol. 16 p 712, in his nomenclature of this grass. This is a 

 very common and very abundant tall grass in Ceylon, with very 

 large panicles of flowers with long awns, and as already stated 

 is most troublesome to those who have to walk through it. 

 Brooms are made of its long wiry culms. Cattle never touch 

 it. It is a most troublesome weed on roadsides in Colombo. It 

 is found in Morocco, Northern Africa, in the Canary and Cape 

 de Verde Islands, Arabia Petraaa, Brazil, in Southern Spain, 

 Sicily; and Linneus remarks that this is one of the four plants 

 which constitute the flora of the island of Ascension, the others 

 being Sherardia fruticosa, Euphorbia origanoides, and Portu- 

 laca. 



150. Aristida depress a, Rrtz. A. vulgaris, Trin, This 

 grass was found at Trincomalee by the late lie v. Mr. Glenie. 

 Rox. Fl. Ind. 1, p 351, says that, like A. Hystrix, it is per- 

 fectly useless. 



151. Phragmitis Roxburghii, Kth. P. nepalensis, N. ab 

 Es. Arundo Karka, Rox. Fl, Ind. 1, p. 347, Panicum arbo- 

 rescens, Moon's Catalogue, p 8. not of Lin. Nala-gas, Sinhalese, 

 literally trumpet or reed plant. This a very common and 

 remarkable grass, with culms from 10 to 12 feet in height 

 crowned with large open panicles of brown inflorescence. It 

 affects the mouths of rivers and is generally mixed with the 

 mangroves, but is equally common on the banks of canals, 

 streams and fields, and can be easily recognised at the mouth 

 of the Kelani river, on the Island and elsewhere, close to 



