56 



DESCRIPTIUX OF A NEW AUSTRALIAN GRASS. 



By Fred. Turner, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., etc. 

 Panicum tulcumbense, sp.nov. 



Stems perennial, from a rather prominent, knotty base, attain- 

 ing a height of two or more feet, glabrous except for a few 

 remote, small tubercles surmounted with short, fine hairs. Leaves 

 ava-ple, from three to eight inches long, about four lines broad, 

 flat and tapering into long, fine points. Panicle from seven to 

 eleven, or rarely more, inches long, on rather long peduncles, 

 loose, narrow, pendulous, with alternate, distant, primary, filiform 

 branches, the lower ones about six inches or more long, the upper 

 ones shorter. The lower secondary branches from one inch 

 to three inches long, but variable. Spikelets rather crowded on 

 the ultimate branches and on the upper portion of the panicle, 

 all pedicellate and about one and one-half lines long. Outer glume 

 about one-third the length of the spikelet, broad, acute, five- 

 nerved; second glume broad, shortly acuminate, with seven to 

 nine prominent nerves; third glume the longest, more acuminate, 

 with five prominent nerves, enclosing a male flower with a large, 

 acute palea. Fruiting glume about half the length of the spikelet, 

 very shortly acuminate, shining, with five, very fine nerves. 

 Palea shorter and very finely striate. Grain enclosed in the 

 hardened fruiting glume and palea, but free from them. 



Hab. — Tulcumbah, Liverpool Plains, N.S.W. (collected by Fred. 

 Turner). 



The indigenous species of Panicion allied to P. tulcumbense 

 are P. semitonsum, F.v.M., and P. antidotale, Retz., two North 

 Australian grasses. It difiers from the former principally in the 

 disposition of its infloi'escence, and in not having the prominent, 

 tuberculate, ciliate nerves on the spikelets; and from the latter in 

 its more dwarf habit, and in not having a spreading panicle, and 

 almost sessile, acuminate or mucronate spikelets. 



P, tulcumbense. is a capital forage plant. 



