u 



dded 



with seeds of various species of grass. This method of sowing 

 grass seed is one of the many devices Dame Nature adopts for 

 perpetuating plants under adverse climatic conditions. When 

 good rains fall on those naturally-sown areas, and genial 

 weather ensues, the seeds germinate quickly, and the resulting 

 grass grows rapidly, and soon clothes apparently useles3 tracts of 

 country with beautiful verdure. Those areas, however, which 

 have a substratum or subsoil of a hard or strong clayey nature, 

 and from which the surface soil has been removed by wind, do 

 not quickly become covered with grass after rain and congenial 

 weather for the seeds, however sharp the points of their coverings 

 may be cannot penetrate that as easily as the more porous earth ; 

 consequently there are few, if any, naturally-sown seeds to germi- 

 nate. Such areas often remain destitute of grass for a consider- 

 able time and in the interior are generally called " scalded 

 plains. After the sun and weather have ameliorated the surface, 

 and made it congenial to plant life, vegetation gradually reasserts 

 itseir on those areas, which eventually become covered with 

 beautiful green grass and other herbage. 



8 P^fhl b ^ 0n °f Gr i SS Seeds.-The distribution of Australian grass 

 TZ ?™Z natnr ?}. Bnd 1 ?rtificial means is a most interesting study, 



mtSld tY by 1 notin ^ how the matured seeds are often disse- 

 SvernLofth.i 3 TT ^ (hairy tufts ) amounting the 



^t^M^£:^T!l^I^ d 8*? »d thither 



same 



n , nT , lia ^ _ r* , TTfc v ™ mo ixumeis, wnn tneir adherent 



F;;r s th°e f SMses h"? s- **-* «- «» 



-mux iu« plants that bore them. Many grass seeds esneHallv 

 those whose coverings are oWlwi ^nv. r • & ? et ! 8 » especially 

 whose flowering SnEL^ clo ? lled ™«h clinging hairs, and those 



and wide bv 4ri2 I " l0ng a * M » are often distributed far 

 vfc&k St. J van °ns agencies, particularly by travelling stock 



to cause them to germinat^ T Kwff " - Ufi ? Cient ^^ 

 seeds of on e nf tvT^ 5r „ l know °. f an instance where the 



were carried bv oattu "<I™ i «*««*»*» Kfeuracnne Mitchell, ana) 



deep, soft soil on e o'Tm himdred miles ' and deposited in 

 after\eavy ra n a nd '^ ;^-? rou n^ "where they germinated 

 dissimilar ve^titicV ^^"^amongst the surrounding 

 of manv grass seeds is not £? gen Tf y known that the vitality 



^deed/ tL^minatioS of r ,r8d * y the process of digestion ; 

 facilitated. germmatloQ of many of the hard-coated ones is 



ars .bout ail the Stiva"^ °^ WW that infesting particu- 



«-, M not he Sffl?^ ™ J rpLr^ 11386 ° £ 



Economic 



Australian Grasses.-II. 



there are 367 species and mI!?'~ A8 n ar as is at P™»nt known, 

 Venous to ^a,^S^M^7^^ of grass 



