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Var. interrupta, Benth. A larger plant, often 3 or 4 feet high, with 
long flat leaves and large spikelets in dense distinct clusters. From 
the central coast districts to the mountain ranges and tablelands and 
northward into Queensland. 
Var. patens, Benth. Panicle loose, often spreading. Spikelets 
rather small, most of them shortly pedicellate. Port Jackson to Blue 
Mountains ; also Victoria. 
Value as a fodder.—A valuable grass, producing for many months 
of the year abundance of palatable and nutritious fodder. It shoots 
and seeds well. 
“Perennial; stems 1 to 2 feet high, common on both rich and 
poor soil, producing abundance of foliage. This grass has the great 
merit of keeping its verdure during the driest summers. A good 
fattening grass. Bears hard feeding. Produces plenty of seed.” 
(Bacchus.) 
“Keeps beautifully green in the driest Australian summer, even on 
poor soil. Pastor Kempe pronounces it to be the best of all grasses 
in Central Australian pastures. Eaten down by sheep, but readily 
springs up again from the root. No drought seems to subdue it.” 
(Mueller.) 
Var. interrupta. A stronger grower than the normal species, but 
its qualities are much the same. 
“ This variety and var. patens have sprung up at Mudgee, New South 
Wales, and are increasing. At present large patches of the river flats 
are covered with it, but neither sheep nor cattle seem to like it.” 
(Hamilton, Proc. Linn. Soc., N.S.W. [2] 1, 302.) 
Mudgee is over the Dividing Range, but the opinion of Mr. Bailey 
in regard to the coastal Queensland form is much the same :—“ This 
is a very tall, or long, straggling, often hoary form, met with along the 
coast. Very harsh, and of little value as a fodder, but useful for 
binding coast sands, and affording a bite for stock in such localities.” 
Habitat and range.—F ound in all the Colonies except Tasmania ; also 
in Asia. Widely diffused over New South Wales. 
“ EH. Brownii is abundantly naturalised about the Bay of Islands, 
and is proving itself a valuable grass.” (Sec., Auckland Acclim. Soc., 
quoted by Bacchus.) 
14. Eragrostis laniflora, Benth. 
Botanical name.—Laniflora—Latin, lana, wool; flos, floris, flower, the 
glumes being enveloped at the base with woolly hairs. 
Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 648).— 
Rhizome and somewhat bulbous bases of the stems woolly-hairy. 
Stems 1 to 14 feet high, slightly cottony at the nodes. 
Leaves narrow, flat, with scabrous sheaths. 
Panicle loose, 4 to 6 inches long, with few divaricate or reflexed scabrous branches. 
Spikelets very shortly pedicellate, and not numerous, divaricate, or reflexed, very 
flat, 4 to 8 inches long, nearly 2 lines broad, with twenty to fifty flowers, the 
rhachis tardily articulate. 
