10 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH.) 



Ceylon Observer of 19th July, 1879, extracted from the Madras 

 Athenaeum. For one variety of E. stricta, Rox. gives the increase 

 equal to 120-fold, and for another 500-fold, whilst on two tufts, 

 the produce of one seed. 50 culms grew, and no less than 8,100- 

 fold was carefully calculated to be the produce of this plant. 

 Five varieties of kurakkan are cultivated by the Sinhalese. 



163. Dactyloctenium jegyptiacum, Willd. Cynosurus 

 eegyptius, Linn. Chloris mucronata, Mich. Eleusine aegyptiaca, 

 Pers, &c. Putu-tana, Sinhalese. This is a common grass and 

 easily recognised by its peculiar three-to-five-spiked stiff inflores- 

 cence. The culms creep and root at their joints, flowering parts 

 erect. Cattle eat the young plants. 



164. Chloris barbata, Sw» Andropogon barbatum, Linn. 

 Mayura-tana, Sinhalese. This is a very common grass about 

 Colombo, and is remarkable from its long awned spikes, which 

 come out in dense tufts of 12 to 20 on the tops of the culms, 

 and are seen moving about with the least wind. Cattle eat it 

 till it flowers, and then it is seldom touched. 



165. Chloris decora, N. ab Es. C. meccana, Hochst. 

 Said to be found in the hot drier parts of the Island. I have 

 not seen a specimen of this grass. 



166. Chloris digitata, SteucL Melica digitata, Rox. Fl. 

 Ind. ] . p. 326, Gymnopogon digitatus. N. ab. Es. MSS. I only 

 know this grass from a dried specimen of it. Roxburgh describes 

 it with culms four to five feet high, spikes terminal, expanding, 

 very long, mostly five-fold. A large beautiful species. 



167. Dichjetaria Wightii, N. ab Es., Steud. Syn. Gram, 

 p. 145. Gymnopogon rigidus, Thw. En. PI. p. 372, C. P. 914. 

 This is a coarse erect grass, from two to three feet in height, 

 found in abundance in the Government Experimental Gardens 

 at Henaratgoda. I do not think cattle touch it when in flower 

 at least. 



168. A vena aspera, Munro, Described by Thwaites 



