26 AUSTRALIAN GRASSES AND PASTURE PLANTS 



of food for the aborigines, who used to grind them between 

 stones into a kind of meal, which was mixed with water and 

 made into a kind of dough, and after being baked on a wood 

 fire was eaten and considered nourishing. The blacks also 

 made a kind of twine from the old leaves of this grass. There 

 is a variety of this species of more slender growth, but its 

 qualities are much the same. 



Cotton Grass (Panicum leucophoeum) is found all over 

 Australia from the coast to the far interior ; being much more 

 abundant, however, in the latter than in the former portion 

 of the continent. It is generally found growing on rich soils, 

 and in such situations, in a good season, it often attains a 

 height of three feet. This grass is easily recognised in the 

 pastures when in flower by its spikelets being densely covered 

 with long, silky, silvery or purple hairs, which give it quite 

 an ornamental appearance. It is a valuable pasture grass, 

 and in ordinary seasons yields a quantity of rich, leafy herbage 

 much relished by all kinds of stock. I have had this species 

 under experimental cultivation for several consecutive years, 

 and it proved a very prolific grass. When cut as soon as the 

 flowers appeared, and dried, it made excellent hay, of which 

 horses were fond. When this grass is allowed to grow un- 

 disturbed for a time it produces a great amount of seed, which 

 usually ripens in November and December, but occasionally 

 in the autumn. There is a slender growing variety of this 

 species, having a less extended range of growth, but of similar 

 economic value. Both these grasses are worth systematic 

 cultivation. 



Coach Grass (Cynodon dactylori) occurs in all the States of 

 the Commonwealth from the coast to the far interior, but 

 is much more common in the former portion of the continent. 

 It is of prostrate habit, often creeping and rooting at every 

 joint. When well established on good soils, however, it 



