78 
“This is one of the most remarkable of the Queensland grasses. 
Anyone seeing it when in flower would be surprised if told it was 
probably, for Downs country, one of the best that could be grown; 
yet nevertheless such is the case. The flowering stalks attain 4 or 5 
feet in height, but its shortly creeping root-stock forms a very close 
leafy turf, before and even when the plant is in flower.” (Bailey.) 
S. M. Tracey, in Bulletin No. 20, Mississippi Experiment Station, 
U.S.A., writes :—“ Australian Blue-grass (Andropogon erianthoides) is 
a perennial species from Australia, which has been cultivated in a 
few localities for a number of years, and advertised to a considerable 
extent, but its growth has not been very satisfactory here. It is so 
tender that it barely lives through the winter in this latitude, and 
starts into growth late in the spring, though it makes an excellent 
growth during summer and will give two good cuttings of fine, tender, 
and nutritious hay. The leaves are killed by a moderate frost, and it 
fails to hold the ground against the encrcachment of other grasses. 
Several other species of Andropogon from Australia and from India 
have also been tested, but this appears to be the best of the genus, 
and the only foreign one which makes any promise of final success.” 
Habitat and range-—Found in New South Wales and Queensland. 
In this colony it is principally found in the Western districts, but it 
is also recorded from the Monaro. 
2. Andropogon sericeus, R.Br. 
Botanical name.—NSericeus—Latin, silky, in allusion to the appear- 
ance of the spikes. 
Vernacular names.—The “‘ Blue-grass” par excellence of Queens- 
land and New South Wales; has been sent from Mudgee under the 
name of “ Canary-grass.”~ 
Where jigured.—Bailey, Agricultural Gazette. 
Botanical description (B. F1., vii, 529).—Perennial, 
Stems erect, branching at the base, usually rather slender and 1 to 2 feet high, with 
narrow leaves chiefly at the base, but sometimes twice that height with larger 
leaves, the nodes bearded. 
Spikes in the typical form two or three or rarely twice as many, sessile at the top 
of a slender peduncle, without sheathing bracts, all 1 to 2inches long and densel 
clothed with long silky hairs on the outer glumes, as well as on the rhachis an 
pedicels. 
Spikelets scarcely two lines long, the pedicellate one reduced to a many-nerved silky- 
hairy glume enclosing a second small hyaline lanceolate one. 
Outer glume of the sessile spikelet rather rigid, obtuse or nearly so, about five-nerved, 
with long silky hairs on the back, and a short scarious ciliate tip. 
Second glume keeled, acute, glabrous. 
Third very small, broad, thin, and hyaline. 
Awn or termina! glume % to 14 inches long, without any hyaline dilatation at the 
base. 
Value as a fodder.—One of the best and most widely diffused of our 
grasses. Valuable alike for pasture and for hay. Very fattening, 
and much liked by stock of all kinds. 
Habitat and range.—Found in all the colonies except Tasmania, in 
all the districts of this colony, and in all sorts of soils and situations. 
Very widely distributed. Occurs also in Asia, the Phillippme Islands, 
and New Caledonia. 
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