BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 
73 
noted that he did not visit Anderat then—he gives a circumstantial accoimt of 
the cultivation of certain millets and pulses in Ameni and Kadamum, but says 
that in Chitlac field-cultivation was then quite insignificant and that in Kiltan 
it had given way altogether before the planting of coco-nut trees. Writing 
thirty years later, Mr. Hume says* that “ in former days a certain amount of 
miOets used to be grown in all the islands ; now, even in Ameni’, little or 
“ none appears to be cultivated, and the people are wholly dependent for their 
“ supplies on the mainland, whence they bring, not only rice, but tobacco and 
“ salt, which, cmiously enough, never seems to have been manufactured on the 
“ islands, the people being allowed to get duty-free salt from Goa.” 
In Anderat, judging from Dr. Alcock’s brief notice of the island, there 
appears to be even to tins day more cereal cultivation than in most of the other 
islands ; stiU he does not speak of rice as being grown, and says that the staple 
crop is ragi {Eleusine Coracand). 
X 179. Sacchartjm officinaeum Linn., Sp. PI. 54 ; Eoxb., Flor. Ind., i, 
4 37. 
Minikoi; cultivated, Fleming.^. 
Cultivated throughout the tropics. 
/ 180. Ischaemum ciliare Retz., Obs., vi, 36. I. t&nellnm Eoxb., 
Plor. Ind., i, 323. 
Kalp^ni; Alcock / Akati; Fleming I Bitrapar ; Fleming! Kadamum ; 
Fleming ! Kiltan ; Fleming ! Everywhere very plentiful. 
\ Confined to China, India and Indo-China. 
181. Ischaemum muticum Linn., Sp. PI. 1049. L rqpens, Eoxb., 
Flor. Ind., i, 323. 
Kalpeni; Alcoch ! Mimkoi; Fleming ! 
; Extends from S. E. Asia to Australia and Western Polynesia ; is very common 
on the coast in the Andamans and Nicobars. 
182. Andropogon contortus Linn., Sp. PI. 1045 ; Eoxb., Idor. 
Ind., i, 253. 
IHltan ; Alcocl / Kadamum ; very plentiful, Fleming ! 
A common grass of dry places, cosmopolitan in the tropics. 
A83. Andeopogon mueioatus Eetz., Obs., iii, 43 ; Eoxb., Flor. Ind., i, 
265 ; Watt, Diet., i, 245. The Khus-lhus grass. 
Kiltan ; a little clump found growing near the mosque, Feming ! 
Cosmopolitan in the tropics ; here probably introduced. Haeckel (Z»(7., Slonegr. 
riianmg., vi., 542)identifies A. muricatus Eetz. with A. squarrosus Liim. f., but 
omits to cite Eoxburgh’s description of the Khus-khus grass or to say whether 
* “ Stray Feathers,” iv, 441. 
373 
