6b2 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.JF. [^//^/. 3, 1908. 



Useful y\ustralian Plant 



s. 



.1. H. MAIDEN, 



( ioveiiinienl Botanist anil director, Botanic ( Jardcins, Sydney. 



No. 1)(). Clitoris dlcarlcala, ll.l)i;. 



Botdnical Name. — Chloris, the Greek word for "pale ifreeii, " in allusion to 

 the colour of some of the member-s of this genus ; diraricafa, Latin, literally 

 "straddling" or spread asunder, licnee \ery divergent. This refers to the 

 spikes of flowers. 



Brown uses the word in his original descrijition when he says " spieis G-U 

 digitatis divaricatis." 



VeriKicidar Name- — I know of none. 



Botanical DescrijJtion. — A glabrous erect tufted grass of 1 to '1 feet. 



Leares narrow, flat or convolute, the sheaths often much tiattencd. 



Spike.t 6 to 12, slender, .3 to 6 inches long. 



Spikelefs very numerous Ijut not crowded, rarely 2 lines long without the awns. 



Oiitir (///niu's uncijnal, very narrow, tiiuily pointed. 



Floircrin<i (j/iimc narrow, keeled, ,3-nerved, the Hue awn 3 to (5 lines long, with a 

 point or narrow lobe on each side. 



Terminal empty (jltimc broadly linear, 2 lobed, with an awn between the lobes some- 

 times as long as that of the flowering glume. (B. Fl. vii, 612.) 



Note. — ( 1 ) The leaf-sheath appears to be more flattened in this than in any other species. 

 (2) Comparing this with the closely related C. (triruhtrl-i: in that s])ecics the flowerinu 

 glume tapers into the awn, while in C. dimricata the flowering glume has an acute tooth 

 or lobe on each side of the awn. 



Vahie as a fodder. — Like most other species of C/doris it is, probably, a 

 valual)le pasture grass for sheej), more })articularly before its flowei--spikes 

 become I'ipened, but we have few detailed observations by pastorali.sts con- 

 cerning it. 



Habitat and liamje. — Collected at Yandama, north-western New South 

 AVales, by Mr. A. W. Mullen, Surveyor for the Western Lands Board, April, 

 lOUG. It has since been received from the Moree district from 3Ir. C. d. 

 McFarland. It has, probably, been ]>assed over as other species, ami will, 

 probably, be found to have a wide range in this State. 



This interior grass is recorded in Mueller's " Census " from North Australia 

 and (.Queensland. .Mr. !Max Koch, who did good work in the botanical 

 e.xploration of South Australia, discovered it in 1900 at Mt. Lyndhurst, in 

 that State, and in Proc. Linn. Soc. N.SJV., I90(j, p. 740, Mr. Betche and I 

 recorded it as an addition to the flora of New South Wales. 



REFERENCE TO PLATE. 



1. Entire Plant. Natural size. 



2. Part of rhachis of a spike, showing the two persistent outer glumes of two spikelets. 



3. A single spikelet, showing — 



(I. (I. The two jjersistent outer glumes. 

 //. The flowering glume, opened out so as to show palea and grain, 

 c. The emj)ty terminal glume. 



4. F'lowering glume. 



f)- Flowering glume aiul empty terminal glume in their natural position as they drop 

 off witli the ripe grain, leaving the two outer glumes persistent on the rhachis (2). 

 (). (irain. 



