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spikelets. It is very abundant in damp spots, and being fairly tall 
is easily cut. 
Leers ia he v and ra is a very slender grass with narrow leaves. 
It is about two feet tall, with a small panicle of spikelets resembling 
* those of paddy but much smaller. In fact the plant belongs to the 
group Oryzeoe , and is nearly allied to the rice plants. This is really the 
best fodder grass we have, and is much liked by cattle and horses. 
It will not grow in dry spots, being a semiaquatic grass, but is abun- 
dant in all open wet ground, and forms with the last the thick long 
grass of the open swamps. 
/ schaemum ciliare , mentioned above as a turf grass is another ex- 
cellent fodder. Though as a turf grass it grows short and compact, in 
damper spots, it gets taller and thicker and can be easily cut. Among 
the other mixed grasses growing in somewhat dryer spots than 
Leersia and fsachne , we have good plants in the form of Paspalufn 
sdntruinale one form of which I have already mentioned as a good 
turf grass. The common weedy form which grows in partly cleared 
ground becomes taller, s >me two dr three feet high, and is a suitable 
fodder. 
P. mxKunum , the Guinea grass, is often cultivated for horse fod- 
der. It is very easily grown and attains a large size often over six 
feet, and can easily he propagated by breaking up the tufts. The 
leaves are rather broad, and it is stated, that, when given in large 
quantities in a wet state to horses it produces inflammation of the 
stomach and death, Mixed with other grass it is certainly very good 
for horses and is cultivated as a fodder all over the tropics. It is 
certain that many horses have been killed here by over eating of 
this grass, so that no horse or" cow should be allowed to eat large 
quantities of it at a time; what the exact cause of death is in these 
cases is at present obscure, but it is known that in other cases of 
death from over-eating of certain fodders, the cause is due to the 
formation of prussic acid in the leaves at a certain period of their 
growth and it is quite possible that this may happen in the case of 
the Guinea grass. The subject however requires careful investiga- 
tion. 
Panicum muticum , Watergrass, is a smaller narrower-leaved 
grass than the Guinea grass, ft has long boen introduced into this 
country, being a native of South America, where it is also largely 
cultivated for horse fodder. In Brazil almost every house has a 
patch of this grass in the compound which is cut for the horses 
each dav by the syces. 
It grows in damper more low-lying spots than the Guinea grass, 
and is an equally good and apparently much safer fodder. I have 
no records of accident from it. It is usually about four feet tall 
but grows to as. much as eight feet in some places, the bases creep- 
ing, the nodes and often the sheaths hairy, the inflorescence of 
numerous short spikes, with very crowded spikelets arranged in 
rows on one side of t lie flattened rachis. 
1 do not know why this grass is so little used here, unless it be 
