50 
Spikelets all on slender pedicels, narrow, acute, 1} to 14 lines long, usually of a pale 
straw colour. 
Outer glume very short, broad and truncate, thin and nerveless. 
Second and third glumes nearly equal, acute, thinly membranous, five or seven- 
nerved, the third, with a palea from one-quarter or one-third its length, but no 
stamens. 
Fruiting glume very smooth and shining. 
Value as a fodder.—It affords a bulky, palatable, and nutritious 
fodder. It is worthy of extensive cultivation, particularly in the 
western country—an operation which is rendered the easier because 
it yields abundance of seed. 
Other uses—The aborigines convert the very small millet-like grains 
into cakes, which are really nutritious. 
Alluding to this grass, Sir Thomas Mitchell (Three Expeditions, pp. 
237 and 290), says:—“‘In the neighbourhood of our camp the grass 
had been pulled to a very great extent, and piled in hay-ricks, so that 
the aspect of the desert was softened into the agreeable semblance of 
a hay-field. The grass had evidently been thus laid up by the natives, 
but for what purpose we could not imagine. At first I thought the 
heaps were only remains of encampments, as the aborigines sometimes 
sleep on a little dry grass, but when we found the ricks, or hay-cocks, 
extending for miles, we were quite at a loss to understand why they 
had been made. All the grass was of one kind, and not a spike of it 
was left in the soil, over the whole of the ground. . . . We were 
still at a loss to know for what purpose the heaps of one particular 
kind of grass had been pulled, and so laid up hereabouts. Whether 
it was accumulated by the natives to allure birds, or by rats, as their 
holes were seen beneath, we were puzzled to determine. The grass 
was beautifully green beneath the heaps, and full of seeds, and our 
cattle were very fond of this hay.” 
Mr. E. Palmer, in describing the food-stuffs of the Cloncurry 
(Queensland) aborigines, thus refers to this grass:—‘‘ Has a fine 
yellow seed like lucerne seed, which is gathered when the seed is just 
opened from the sheath. It is wimnowed and ground between two 
stones, mixed with water into a kind of paste or thick gruel, and 
poured into the hot ashes, making a sort of damp bread, very nourish- 
ing and satisfying.” 
Habitat and range.—A. moisture-loving species, found in all the 
colonies except Tasmania. It is diffused throughout the Colony, but 
is most plentiful in the western districts. It has been doubtfully 
recorded also from Asia. . 
538. Panicum trachyrhachis, Benth. 
Botanical name.—Trachyrhachis, from two Greek words—trachys, 
rough or harsh, and rhachis, the backbone (as applied to animals), 
the rhachis (in botany) or axis supporting a flowermg stem. In this 
grass the rhachis is rough, and so are the branches and the panicle. 
Vernacular name.—‘ Oo-kin” of the aborigines of the Mitchell 
River, Northern Queensland. 
Where figured.—Agricultural Gazette. 
