386 Obserrnf/ons oji tlid Flora of Courfalhnn. [Oct. 



in the midst of hurricanes its lart^e panicles of bright shin- 

 ins^ black berries, most enticing; in appearance, b lit in re- 

 allity most austere to the taste. Of the Gramincie two 

 deserve to be noticed here, one a species of bamboo, th6 

 other the ginger grass, as it is usually called, on account of 

 its aromatic properties. The former a tall straight 

 reed like plant, rarely exceeding an inch in diameter, 

 with long lanceolate leaves and few branches, covers the 

 tops of all the hills so thickly that it is almost impossi- 

 ble to make ones way among them, otherwise than by 

 cutting them down. The appearance of this bamboo iis 

 so like a gigantic reed, that tlioy have here got the name 

 of reeds, and, in exposed situations wdiere their growth is 

 stunted, the resemblance is very perfect. It is, I believe, a 

 iion-descript species which, with Roxburghs B. baccifera, 

 will form a new genus. The size and form of its leaves 

 indicates a near relationship to the plant, the leaves of 

 which the Chinese employ for packing tea. The ginger 

 grass is a vei'y rank species of Andropagon, every part 

 of it abounding with an aromatic essential oil, equalling 

 in pungency and possessing in an eminent degree the 

 properties of cajaputy oil, on which account it might at 

 some future period become valuable in a commercial 

 point of view, as the oil is easily separated by distillation. 



In this enumeration I have mentioned only some of the 

 tribes generally known on account of the uses to which 

 some of their species are applied, but did I, by confining 

 my observations to such_,lead to th e supposition that there 

 were not innumerable others,many of them perhaps e'qual- 

 iy valuable but less known, I would certainly do the 

 forests of Courtallum a vast injustice,as they abound 'With 

 trees of the most majestic dimensions, as 'well as with 

 plants of a more humble growth, but vying in the beauty 

 of their flowers with the choisest productions of the 

 flower garden, and with some presenting the most strik- 

 ing peculiarities met v/ith in the vegetable kin^dolti. To 



