that so many of the European compounds are too dry for it, and 
the swampier grass grounds more suitable for it are occupied with 
the more popular Leersia & Isachne. Certainly it is not as popu- 
lar as it is in Ceylon and elsewhere and as it deserves to be. 
Panicum oryzoides , a rather broad-leaved creeping grass with 
round green spikelets of fairly large size, grows in damp spots and 
edges of woods. It is apt to get woody however, when it gets large, 
but it is common and mixes well with the others. 
The Panicums of the section Hymenachne , with moderately broad 
lanceolate leaves and catkin-like spikes of green flowers, are 
mostly good fodders. The smallest, Panicum indicum, is often to 
be seen in grass plots, but it attains a larger size in open ground, 
and with the allied P. Myosuroides and larger P. auritum which 
sometimes grows as much as six feet tall in wet spots, is good. 
/>. my urns which is even bigger with a more open panicle is rather 
too coarse a grass, though cattle are said to be fond of it in Ceylon. 
All grow together in damp spots, often in water. 
Panicum patens , “Rumput Telor Ikan " Fishes-eggs grass, so 
called from its minute black spikelets borne on the very slender 
hairlike branches of the panicle, often occurs abundantly in fairly 
dry spots, edges of woods, etc. It is seldom very tall but comes 
in very well with other grasses. 
Panicum repens , known here as Victoria grass, is a tall, often 
stout grass with a woody base and a long creeping rootstock 
which perforates the ground and is very troublesome to eradicate. 
The leaves are usually narrow and rather glaucous. This grass is 
too well k nown to planters as a pestilential weed, nearly as bad to 
extimateas Lalang. It chiefly grows in sandy places. FERGUSON 
says '(Trimen Flora of Ceylon,' v, 154), that it is highly valued as 
fodder for cattle, and large quantities are brought into and sold 
in Colombo. 
P. colonum. A common weed cultivated in India for its grain, 
occurs in waste ground here, but in no great quantity. It is con- 
sidered one of the best fodders in India, but is not abundant 
enough here. 
Eragrostis is a genus of usually small weedy grasses, several of 
which occur mixed with other grasses. They do not creep to any 
extent so that they are really not much good for turfing, though 
E. elongata ( E . Brownei ) forms tufts in our grass plots, especially 
in bad soil, which often come in well to fill up bare spots. 
E. unioioides, a very pretty grass with flat purple or pink spike- 
lets, in damp soils adds a good deal to the grass. E. plumosa, a 
common pathway weed is occasionally also mixed with other 
grasses, and forms a good fodder. 
E. Brownei is considered a very good fodder grass in Australia, 
and might come in very well in dry clayey or sandy pastures. 
Many other plants besides grasses occur in our turf plots and 
pasturage : — Cyperaceae, small sedges; especially the two Kyllmgas, 
