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the continent, quite a number occurring on the so-called desert 

 tracts of Central Australia. All these grasses are not endemic, 

 for many of them are found growing in other warm countries, 

 and several are widely distributed in various parts of the globe. 

 The endemic grasses have a unique position among the vegetable 

 products of the earth, for, in addition to many of them possessing 

 singular characteristics, they include one of the dwarfest and one 

 of the tallest species in the world. The former (Micrahn subuli- 

 folia)y which I found on the Glass House Mountains in Queens- 

 land, where it forms a dense carpet on the shelving rocks, has 

 very narrow leaves, usually about a quarter, but rarely half, an 

 inch long, and thread-like flowering stems from one inch to 

 two inches high, while the latter, popularly called the %i climbing 

 bamboo," has stems more than 200 feet long, which ascend to the 

 tops of the highest trees in tropical Australia. Several indigenous 

 grasses, such as Festuca divesa, Heteropogon insignis* Panicum 

 crus-galliy Rottboellia exaltata, Sorghum fulvumrf etc., attain a 

 height of from 8 feet to 12 feet or more, but by far the greater 

 number grow, under normal conditions, from 1 foot to 4 feet high. 

 Together with the famous saltbushes, nutritious herbs, and the 

 many shrubs and trees producing edible and palatable foliage, all 

 of which will be referred to in subsequent articles, they are the 

 most valuable assets on this continent. Without that rich and 

 varied vegetation, it would be practically impossible to feed the 

 millions of sheep, cattle, and horses now depastured in this 

 country. Commercial men frequently make the remark, " What 

 would Australia do without its wool ? " But very few ever pause 

 to think what Australia would do without the indigenous herbage 

 which is really the principal factor in creating this valuable staple 

 product. When it is taken into consideration that the pastoral 

 industry is worth about £250,000,000, and yearly increases in 

 value, being the most important one in Australia, and the one 

 from which the population derives its greatest wealth, it is a 

 matter of national importance that more attention should be paid 

 to the valuable indigenous herbage and to the means of saving it 

 from deteriorating in places and of preserving some of it from 

 extinction. Having travelled more than 50,000 miles in Australia, 

 and critically examined much of the indigenous vegetation in alt 

 the States of the Commonwealth and in other countries, and 

 having cultivated upwards of one hundred species of Australian 

 grasses in conjunction with those of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 America, to test their qualities by comparison, I can conscien- 

 tiously say that no part of the world possesses richer and more 

 varied pastoral vegetation than Australia, but careful attention and 

 judicious stocking are required in order to obtain the best results. 



Early appreciation.— Australian grasses attracted the attention of 



the discoverers and earliest settlers of this continent, and different 

 views were entertained regarding their economic value. Sir 

 Joseph Banks, to whom Australia is so much indebted for its early 

 settlement, and for the development of its vegetable resources, 

 remarked in one of his papers :— "The herbage of the colony is. 



Festuca dives (= Glycerin dives of FL Austral.), probably a Poa ; Hetero- 

 pogon insignis (= Andropogon triticus E. Br. of Hackel's monograph).— Ed. 

 t Andropogon terrains of llackel's monograph.— Ed. 



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