PASPALUM SCROBIOULATUM, Unn: 



[Vide Plate XXVII]. 



English, none ; Veknaculae, kodon, koda, kodram (Bijnor) ; Sanscrit, koradusha, kod- 

 ravat 



Natural order Graminece, tribe Panicece. A smooth annual herbaceous grass. Stems many, 

 branching, about 2 ft. high, compressed. Leaves overtopping the flower spikes ; sheaths long, the 

 upper ones spathelike and often embracing the spikes ; blade narrow, tapering gradually to a fine point. 

 Spikes 2-4, terminal and axillary, sessile ; spikelets in two rows on one side of a broad membranous 

 flattened flexuose rachis, 1-flowered, sessile. Glumes equal, membranous, lower 3-nerved, inner one 

 5-nerved. Pales about equal, cartilaginous, outer one hard and brittle, inner thinner with membranous 

 auricle-like projecting edges embracing the stamens and pistil. Lodicules 2, obcuneate, truncate. 

 Stigmas projecting from between the pales, orange brown. Fruit (the grain) enclosed by and 

 adherent to the pales, brown, smooth, roundish, about the size of hemp seed. 



Kodon is a native of India ; it is grown far more extensively than any of the other 

 minor millets, and over a large portion of the Provinces is the favourite crop for inferior 

 outlying land. This is, however, on account of the readiness with which it grows on the 

 poorest soil, and not by reason of the quality of its grain, which is by no means a popular 

 article of food. Indeed there is a saying current in some parts of the Provinces that 

 hell is the destination of any one who dies within 21 days after eating it. It is not 

 used for religious offerings. 



The area under kodon in the 30 temporarily settled districts of the N.-W. Provinces 

 is shown below : — 





Meernt 

 Division. 



Rohilkhand 

 Division, 



Agra 

 Division. 



Allahabad 

 Divsion, 



excluding 

 Jaunpur 

 District. 



Benares 

 Division, 

 including 

 Azamgarh, 

 Basti and 

 Gorakhpur 

 Districts 

 only. 



Jhansi 

 Division. 



Kumann 

 Division, 

 including 

 Tarai 

 District 

 only. 



Total. 





acres. 



acres. 



acres. 



acres. 



acres. 



acres. 



acres. 



acres. 





25 



35,804 



684 



96,789 



19247 



60,175 



not re- 

 turned. 



2,12,724 



The districts in which the area is largest are those lying south of the Jumna. Panda 

 returns 24,446 acres, Hamirpur 24,934 acres, Lalitpur 47,051 acres, and the trans-Jumna 

 portion of the Allahabad District 47,139 acres. The wealth of a tract might be almost 

 assumed to stand in inverse ratio to its area of kodon cultivation. Kodon is grown merely 

 as a means of subsistence, and without much expectation of rent or profit. 



* References :— Roxb. FI. Ind. i. 278 ; Baden-Powell Pnnj. Prod. p. 238 j Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol, x. p. 688. 

 t Roxburgh (1. c.) Piddington Index 66. 



