ow 
193 
Habitat and range.—It is confined to New South Wales, Victoria, 
and Tasmania. In New South Wales it is common in many parts of 
the Monaro, chiefly on black soil flats, often in swampy land. It 
ascends to high altitudes (I have it from 5,000 to 6,000 feet on Mount 
Kosciusko). In Victoria it is confined to Northern Gippsland, in 
situations similar to those it frequents over the border of the northern 
colony. In Tasmania it is found in the Hampshire Hills, Thomas 
Plains, and Recherche Bay. 
Reference to Plate :—a, spikelet ; B, empty glume; c, back and front views of seed ; 
all enlarged. 
101. LEPTURUS. 
Spikelets one-flowered, or in a species not Australian two-flowered, 
sessile, and half embedded in the alternate notches of a more or less 
articulate simple spike. 
Outer empty glumes two, one slightly overlapping the other on one 
side, or one only, appressed and covering the cavity, rigid and nerved. 
Flowering glume and palea shorter, thin, and hyaline, embedded in 
the cavity, the axis of the spikelet produced behind the palea into 
a minute point, or bearing a small terminal empty glume. 
Styles short. 
Grain free from the glume. 
Annuals.—Outer glumes with about five prominent nerves. Axis of 
the spikelet produced into a minute point or bristle. 
Outer glumes of the lateral spikelets two ... as Bb . lL. DL. meurvatus. 
Outer glume of the lateral spikelets only one ae BoC ... 2. D. cylindricus. 
1, Lepturus incurvatus, Trin. 
Botanical name.—Lepturus—Greek, leptos, slender ; owra, a tail, in 
allusion to the pointed rhachis; incurvatus—Latin, crooked or bowed, 
in allusion to the spikes. 
Botanical description (B. FI., vii, 668)—A tufted or branching 
(2) . =) . . 
annual of 3 inches to 1 foot, or rarely more, slender in the Australian 
specimens with very narrow leaves. 
Spikes nearly cylindrical, slender, 2 to 6 inches long, straight or curved. 
Outer glumes two, rigid, acute, usually five-nerved, about 3 lines long, placed in the 
lateral spikelets apparently side by side outside the rest of the spikelet, but 
one slightly overlapping the other at the base. 
Flowering glume and flower embedded in the cavity of the rhachis of the spike, the 
rhachis of the spikelet slightly produced behind the palea into a minute point 
sometimes almost obsolete. In the terminal spikelet the two outer glumes are 
normally exposed to each other. 
Value as a fodder—Not known, but probably small. 
Habitat and range.—Found in South Australia, Victoria, and New 
South Wales. In the last Colony, in salt-marshes in the coast districts 
south from Parramatta to Victoria. Found also in the Mediterranean 
region ; also in India and New Zealand. 
N 
