THATCH. In the S. of the Peninsula of India, the thatch in use with the people is made of pal myra leaves. It is the best thatch for houses, and the most durable. Next to it, in Madras, ranks in value the Cyperus textilis, which grows on the banks of rivulets in the low country, and is called Koary. The leaf of the cocoanut is a very perishable material, and only employed by the very poor. In the Dekhan a long grass is chiefly used. The Karen in Burma use the large pal mated leaf of a tall wild palm, a species of Livi stonia, but the Europeans and Burmese there use the atap, leaves of the Nipa fruticans. The Karen in Amherst province employ the tall grasses, Imperata cylindrica, Saccharum cylin dricum and S. sponta.neum. Long grasses and sedges '(Artindo, Saccharum, and Seleria) are cut and stacked along the water's edge of the Brahma putra in huge brown piles, for export and thatch ing. In S. India, for thatch, the natives also use
the straw of the common grains, called in Tamil Vakel or Vagghil straw (A. muricatum), and the spice grass (Andropogon schcenanthus), also the cocoanut leaves made into a kind of coarse matting called Tennam kittu. The Gabagaba, the midrib of palm leaves particularly of the leaf of the sago palm, is much' used throughont the 'Moluccas for building and fencing. The Bhare of Northern India is a jungle grass about 9 feet high, used for thatch and tatties. Its canes are called Nunre. Through almost all Arabia s.pecies of Panicum or Scirpus are used for covering the roofs of the houses,—slender coverings but sufficient in coun tries where rains are unfrequent. — Birdirood ; Boyle ; .Ariebuhr's Travels, ii. p. 34 ; Hook. II. .T.
p. 373 ; Ains.