138 Observations on Math Grass. [April 



II-— On the Niith Grass of the Ceded Districts.— Bn 

 Robert Wight, M, D. Surgeon, 33d Regt. K 1. 



To fjie Editor of the Mad. Lit. and Scientific Journal. 



When leaving Madras my attention was directed by Mr. 

 Malcolmson to a particular kind of grass, known in the 

 Ceded Districts under the name Nuth, or Nuthoo as it is 

 often called by the natives, remarkable on account of theex-^ 

 treme difficulty of eradicating it, when it has once got pos- 

 session of the soil. I have lately examined this grass, and, 

 much to my surprise, found it undescribed, though a very 

 common plant and one for the eradication of which, it ap- 

 pears probable, every successive government that has ruled 

 in those districts has from time immemorial been paying 

 large sums. This I hold to be one very strong proof, 

 among many others that might be adduced, of how little 

 the natural history of these very interesting provinces has 

 been investigated, as this plant is a most conspicuous ob- 

 ject, growing to the height of nearly four feet, and remark- 

 able for its peculiar, I had almost said showy spikes of 

 flowers ; clothed as they are with much pure white hair, 

 contrasting strongly with the very black ground in which 

 they grow, which is rendered still more striking, by the 

 foliage of the plant being of a pale whitish green colour^ 

 altogether different from the other plants with which it 

 may happen to be associated. 



So far as my acquaintance with the vegetation of that 

 ssoil yet extends, it differs from nearly ail the other her- 

 bacious plants found in it, in having very v/idely spreading 

 perennial roots, or rather underground stems ; all the 

 others having either fibrous annual roots, or very long, 

 tapering, perennial ones ; with the stems even when procum- 

 bent, generally annual and altogether above ground, — In 

 its creeping habit it resembles many of the plants found 

 with equal constancy in sandy soil, among which similar 

 creeping roots or under ground stems, form a valuable 

 provision for binding the loose material among which they 

 grow. Many such plants are found on the sand hills 

 along the coast, and in Europe the Triticum repens is sel- 

 dom w^anting in such situations, and is as difficult to era- 

 dicate there as the Kuth is here. 



