90 
BERMUDA OR BRAMA GRASS. 
BERMUDA OR BRAMA GRASS. 
We received some three months since, from that 
eminent friend of Agriculture, Thomas Spalding, 
Esq., of Georgia, a box containing various grasses, 
&c., all of which we shall endeavor to acclimate 
here, save No. 2. We must apologise to Mr. S. for 
the delay attending the appearance of his esteemed 
favor, as it got misplaced and was overlooked for our 
two preceding numbers. We should like to know 
whether orchard grass, herds grass, and red top, grow 
well in the lower or more southern parts of Georgia. 
Sapelo Island, Nov. 4, 1844. 
I herewith send you a box of grasses, because they 
may serve as resting points for my future correspond¬ 
ence. 
No. 1. Marked on the side of the box, was intro¬ 
duced into Georgia by Gov. Ellis, in the year 1751. 
I suspect Bermuda is a corruption of Brama grass, for 
there is no grass of any kind growing in Bermuda, as 
I know from having been there myself on public 
business. 
I send you a letter from Mr. James Couper (see 
below), the only botanist among us, whom I could 
with great difficulty induce to go into the examina¬ 
tion (after I had received from Mr. Crawford the 
dried specimens), by sending Sir William Jones’s 5th 
vol., 8vo. London edition, with the grass figured and 
described; 2d vol., of quarto edition, is quoted by the 
English botanists. 
The deduction J draw from that examination is, 
that others before tne Marquis of Hastings, had intro¬ 
duced the Doob grass into England, as Governor Ellis 
had done into Georgia, and that change of soil and 
climate, as every observer of vegetable growth well 
knows, nad produced some change in color and form 
in the flower and seeding of the plant. In truth, we 
extend the culture exclusively by the grass itself. I 
am particular upon this subject, as I remember the 
first box of this grass that was ever carried into the 
interior, and now whole counties are covered with it, 
and there is fine grazing where, a few years back, 
cattle were perishing unless fed. Whenever cotton 
is given up, as it should be in the hill country of 
Georgia, it will become a great wheat and farming 
region. I have seen 1,000 bushels reaped from fifty 
acres, near Augusta, without manure, and with half 
the seed that should have been given to the land; and 
I have known the contractor for the troops of the 
United States to receive 1,500 bushels of wheat, 
weighing 70 lbs. to the bushel—this forty years ago, 
and before the little white wheat was introduced. 
No. 2. The Gama grass, utterly worthless. 
No. 3. A grass, which 1 believe is a variety of 
the blue glass of Kentucky ( poa pratensis). This is 
a permanent grass, it is now growing well where I 
knew it to be growing sixty years ago. It has been 
neglected, and does not spread naturally, from the 
intense shade of our evergreen oaks. But I shall 
sow some seed, and transplant and divide some of 
the grass this winter. 
No. 4. The branches and seed of the tallow-tree 
of China, introduced also by Governor Ellis into 
Georgia; it is a beautiful tree, and the seed now ripe. 
I know it will grow with you. The oil is contained 
in the seed, which is obtained by pounding the seed 
and then boiling. You must take off the outer skin 
and you will then see the ripe seed. 
Thomas Spalding. 
Dear Sir,— Since writing to you from Hopeton, I 
have given the Bermuda grass a very attentive bota¬ 
nical examination, and have compared it with the 
plates and descriptions in Sir William Jones’ and 
Sinclair’s works. The result of this examination is, 
that if the Durva, Dub, or Doob grass of the Hindoos 
is not identical with the Bermuda, it differs by a very 
slight shade indeed. I believe them, however, to be 
the same, or at most, varieties of the same species. 
That they are of the same genus and species, there 
can be no doubt. 
I have been turning over my books, and copy from 
them the following descriptions, which, being in con¬ 
firmation of your original suggestion, may not be un¬ 
acceptable to you, although they smack too much of 
the technical language and dryness of botany. The 
first is from the Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, by 
George Sinclair, a work detailing the results of a very 
extended series of experiments, instituted by the 
Duke of Bedford, to ascertain the produce and nutri¬ 
tive qualities of the different grasses. 
“ Cynodon Dactylon. Creeping dog’s-tooth grass. 
“ Durva, Dub, or Doob grass of the Hindoos. 
“ Digitaria stolonifera. Creeping finger-grass. 
“ Panicum dactylon. Creeping panic-grass. 
“ Specific character. Spikes four or five, crowded 
together; corolla smooth. 
“ Observation. The roots are tough and creeping, 
almost w'oody, with smooth fibres; stems also creep¬ 
ing to a great extent, matted, round, jointed, leafy, 
very smooth; leaves tapering, sharp-pointed, ribbed, 
hairy, a little glaucous, with long striated smooth 
sheaths, and a hairy stipula; spikes four or five, 
linear; flowers purplish, shining, ranged in two 
rows, close and alternate ; the corolla is longer than 
the calyx, very much compressed, opposite.” 
A. B. Lambert, Esq., in the transactions of the 
Linnaean Society, vol. 6, was the first to point out the 
identity of the Panicum dactylon with the Doob grass 
of the Hindoos. The seeds of this highly celebrated 
grass in India, were communicated to the Duke of 
Bedford from the East Indies, by the Marquis of 
Hastings. The seeds were sown in the experimental 
grass garden at Woburn Abbey, where they vegetated 
readily, and produced plants which flowered the 
second year from seed. These perfected seed in the 
month of October, and the plants raised from this 
seed the following spring, differed in no respect from 
those the produce of Indian seed. A portion of the 
seed was sown in the hothouse, and the plants cul¬ 
tivated there, in order to ascertain the effects of the 
climate on the habits of the grass. Exposed in the 
grass garden, and cultivated by the side of the Eng¬ 
lish species, the habit of the Indian plants differed 
from the former in the shortness of the leaves, which 
grew nearly flat on the ground, and were of a reddish 
brown color, instead of the slight glaucous green tint 
of the native English plant. The foreign plants 
flower freely every season, but the native ones of 
this species of plants very seldom, for, during fifteen 
years, the native plants have twice only produced 
flowers. In the hothouse, the Indian plants proved 
of a habit exactly the same as the native plants in 
the open ground, having the leaves equally as long 
as those of the latter, of their glaucous color, and not 
producing any flowering culms. This last fact is a 
very remarkable one as connected with the long con¬ 
tinual effects of different climates on the same species 
