69 
Sub-tribe 11.—ROTTBOELLIER. 
19. HEMARTHRIA, 
Spikelets in pairs, n the alternate notches of a simple spike, one 
sessile and half embedded in a cavity of the scarcely articulate 
rhachis with one hermaphrodite flower, the other on a closely appressed 
and often adnate pedicel reduced to two or three empty glumes, the 
spikes single on each peduncle above a sheathing bract, and often 
flattened. 
Glumes in the sessile spikelet four, the outer one appressed and 
covering the cavity of the rhachis, the second thinner and concave or 
keeled, the third and fourth and the palea in the fourth thin and 
hyaline, 
Styles distinct. 
Grain enclosed in the glumes, but free from them. 
1. Hemarthria compressa, R.Br. 
Botanical name.—From the Greek words hemi, half, and arthron, a 
joint; half-jointed, referring to the spike. Compressa, Latin, flattened, 
referring to the spike of this species. 
Synonym.—Rottbellia compressa, Beauy. 
Vernacular names.—‘* Mat Grass,” “ Mackay Sugar Grass”’ (in 
Queensland), ‘‘ Needle Grass,” ‘so called by me from the appear- 
ance of the spike just before flowering.” (Bacchus.) 
Alhed grasses are known as ‘‘ Rat-tail Grass” in the United States. 
Where figured.—Agricultural Gazette. 
Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 510).— 
Stems decumbent or creeping at the base, rather rigid, ascending to 1 foot or rather 
more, slightly branched. 
Leaves narrow, glabrous, or the lower ones sprinkled with a few long hairs. 
Spikes solitary on the branches or nearly so, more or less compressed, rigid, 3 to 5 
inches long, often 1} lines broad. f 
Spikelets all closely appressed, 3 to 34 lines long. 
Outer glume many-nerved, tapering into a very variable point, sometimes very short 
and straight, especially in the sessile spikelet, sometimes elongated and fine or 
minutely hooked at the extremity, or in southern specimens especially towards 
the end of the spike, terminating in a rather long inflexed rigid hook. In the 
pedicellate spikelet the point of the outer glume is often longer, finer, and 
straight, but occasionally that also is hooked, and more rarely the second glume 
ends in a small hook. 
Value as a fodder.—A strong rambling grass, with creeping roots, 
found on undrained heavy clay or wet, sour soils, and hence useful for 
encouraging in land of that description. Its inflorescence is not con- 
spicuous, and hence many people do not distinguish this grass from 
others. Bailey describes it as “‘a rather harsh, wiry grass, the flattish 
stems often extending the length of 5 or 6 feet. It affords a coarse 
fodder around swamps and the margins of rivers, which is of value 
during very dry seasons. The flattened running stems are very sweet, 
and as the water dries up in the swamps, these are greedily eaten by 
stock ; horses are said to leave all else for these stems.’? Bacchus, a 
