137 
Botanical description (B. FI., vu, 593). 
Stems from a thick horizontal rhizome, stout, 3 to 5 feet high. 
Leaves long, narrow, convolute when dry, glabrous, the upper one w th a long loose 
sheath. 
Panicle dense, rather secund, 3 to 6 inches long. 
Spikelets pedicellate, about 4 inch long, five- to eight-flowered. 
Outer glumes scarcely so long, the lowest rather obtuse, the second tapering to a 
sharp point. 
Flowering glumes densely ciliate on the margins, with very few hairs scattered on the 
back, the lobes broad, tapering into short awns, the central awn long, flat, and 
much twisted below the bend. 
Value as a fodder.—This Alpine grass is tall enough to hide sheep, 
and is a coarse, strong grass, but much liked in spite of its coarseness. 
(Helms.) It reminds one somewhat of Blady Grass (Imperata), when 
not in flower. Horses feed on it greedily. 
Habitat and range.—Forms large patches of rich foliage, up to nearly 
the very summits of the highest peaks in the Australian Alps of both 
New South Wales and Victoria. 
7. Danthonia racemosa, R.Br. 
Botanical name.—Racemosa, Latin, “very full of clusters ;’? in 
botanical language, racemose, having inflorescence in a raceme. 
Synonym.—Danthonia penicillata, F.vy.M. in Census. 
Vernacular names.—A. “ Mulga Grass.” It derives its vernacular 
name from being only found where the Mulga tree (Acacia aneura and 
other species) grows ; see Newrachne. ‘Bunch Danthonia.” (Bacchus.) 
Botanical description (B. Fl. vii, 594). 
Stems slender, 1 to 2 feet high. 
Leaves very narrow, almost setaceous, glabrous, or sprinkled with spreading hairs. 
Spikelets, in the typical form, singly and very shortly pedicellate, or almost sessile, or 
rather distant along the rhachis of a simple raceme, but sometimes more 
approximate, and the lower pedicels with two spikelets. 
Spikelets narrow, erect, under 4 inch long, the outer glume nearly as long. 
Flowering glumes 6 to 8, or more in some varieties, hairy at the base and margins, 
glabrous, or with very few hairs on the back, but the hairs variable, the marginal 
ones sometimes long in a dense tuft on each side of the lobes, sometimes in 
several distinct marginal tufts. 
Lateral lobes in the typical form broad, with short fine points, but more awned in 
some varieties. 
Var. obtusata, F.v.M. A smaller plant, leaves more hairy. Lateral 
lobes of the flowering glumes with scarcely any points. New England. 
Var. biaristata, Benth. Lateral lobes of the flowering glumes broad, 
but with rather long points or awns. New South Wales, Victoria, 
South Australia and Tasmania. 
Var. multiflora, Benth. Spikelets often two together, and all 
approximate. Flowers rather numerous in the spikelet. Hunter 
River and New England, also Queensland and South Australia. 
Value as a fodder—aA grass widely distributed over Australia m 
one or other of its forms. It is one of the best of the Danthonias for 
the pastoralist, forming a good close turf of nutritious, palatable 
grass. “The principal grass of which a large portion of Victorian 
pastures is composed. Itis very hardy, and bears over-stocking better 
