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11. Andropogon bombycinus, R.Br. 
Botanical Name.—Bombycinus—Latin, silken, or made of silk, in 
allusion to appearance of the inflorescence. 
Vernacular names.— Woolly-headed Grass,” or ‘ Silky-heads.” 
Where figured.—Bailey, Agricultural Gazette. 
Botanical description.—(B. F1., vu, 533).—An erect rigid perennial 
grass of 13 to 3 feet, usually glabrous, except a little silky pubescence 
on the lower leaf-sheaths, the nodes glabrous or shortly bearded. 
Leaves narrow, flat, rather rigid, the /igu/a very prominent, entire. 
Panicle shortly branched, 3 to 6 inches long, with sheathing bracts of 1 to 2 inches 
under the branches. 
Peduneles usually shorter than the bracts, bearing each a narrow sheathing bract 
and two very densely woolly-hairy spikes of 4 to 1 inch, at first erect, but soon 
spreading and reflexed. 
Sessile spikelets two to five, concealed by silvery-silky hairs. 
Outer glumes acute, many-nerved, but the two lateral nerves much more prominent, 
especially as the flowering advances, and the intermediate ones becoming almost 
obliterated or visible only towards the end of the glume. 
Second glume thin, with a prominent keel, produced into a short point; third very 
thin, faintly three-nerved ; terminal flowering glume very thin and hyaline, 
shortly bifid, with a very fine awn scarcely exceeding the spikelet, or entire 
without any awn. 
Pedicellate spikelets reduced to a single narrow many-nerved glume of 24 to 3 lines. 
Value as a fodder.—Some pastoralists speak highly of this grass, 
and when it is young there is no doubt it yields most nutritious pasturage. 
It is highly drought-resisting. Queensland observers speak of it in 
qualified terms. O’Shanesy says it is not at all relished by stock, and 
Bailey says it is only cropped by stock in early growth. It is well 
known that stock avoid grasses with much silky or woolly vestiture if 
they can. 
Habitat and range.—Found in all the colonies except Tasmania. It 
occurs in shifting sand and in the hottest interior districts; but it is 
also found east to the tableland. 
18. Andropogon refractus, R.Br. 
Botanical name.—Refractus—Latin, broken, in allusion to the 
broken or reflexed appearance of the inflorescence. 
Vernacular names.—Often called “‘ Kangaroo-grass” because of its 
resemblance to the true kangaroo-grass (Anthistiria ciliata). ‘ Broken- 
spiked Grass” is a name coined by Bailey. It is the “ Turpentine- 
grass” of O’Shanesy, so called owing to the odour of its roots. 
Where figured.—Bailey, Agricultural Gazette. 
Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 554).—A glabrous erect grass of 
about 2 feet, with the narrow leaves, paniculate inflorescence, and 
sheating bracts of A. schenanthus, and the spikes similarly two 
together, about } inch long, on short bracteate peduncles, but much 
more divaricate, soon reflexed, and glabrous except a small tuft of 
short hairs at the base of the sessile spikelets. 
Sessile spikelets, two to five, 24 to 3 lines long. 
Outer glume acute, many-nerved; second, narrow and keeled; third, thin and hyaline ; 
terminal or flowering glume hyaline, narrow, either two-lobed with an awn slightly 
exceeding the spikelet, or more frequently entire or nearly so and awnless. 
ny eee spikelets neuter, or rarely with a male flower; the outer glume many- 
nerved, 
F 
