A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses

Abstract

This book is intended to serve as a guide to the study of the grasses of the plains of South India for the use of officers of the Agricultural and Forest Departments and others interested in grasses. To remedy scarcity of fodder, foreign grasses and fodder plants have been imported, but so far none have' been established on, a large scale. The same amount of attention bestowed on indigenous grasses would have yielded better results. About one hundred grasses of wide distribution in the South Indian plains are described in this volume. The arrangement adopted is that of the “Flora of British India.” Keys for the identification of genera and species are given, and good descriptions of each species are accompanied with figures of the whole plant and of the spikelet and details of the flower. The descriptions are preceded by a useful general account of the vegetative organs and flowers, and the histology of the stem and leaf. The figures, though not always quite sharp, are sufficiently clear to be a great help towards the identification of a given specimen. The handbook should prove of good service in South India.