8 AUSTRALIAN GRASSES AND PASTURE PLANTS 



course would fall to the ground and germinate, and new plants 

 would result and so perpetuate good pasturage. 



Seed Producing Properties of Australian Grasses. 



Most of the indigenous grasses, when allowed to grow undis- 

 turbed for a time, produce an abundance of seed which when 

 mature and kept in contact with dry earth retain their germi- 

 nating power for a lengthy period. Several species produce 

 seeds which are comparatively large when compared with 

 those of cultivated cereals, and which at one time formed an 

 important article of food for the aborigines. The ripe seeds 

 of many indigenous grasses are enclosed in very hard coverings 

 with the lower portions prolonged into points. When 

 mature these seeds fall perpendicularly to the ground, penet- 

 rate it, and gradually descend several inches, especially if it 

 is deep and loose. The sharp-pointed seeds of the "tall oat 

 grass" (Anthistiria avenacea) have been found nearly a foot 

 below the surface, so that it is easy to understand how the 

 ground is often thickly studded with the seeds of various grasses. 

 This method of sowing grass seed is one of the many devices 

 Dame Nature adopts for perpetuating plants under adverse 

 climatic conditions. When good rains fall on these naturally- 

 sown areas, and genial weather ensues, the seeds germinate 

 quickly, and the resulting grass grows rapidly and soon clothes 

 apparently useless tracts of country with beautiful verdure. 



Drought Enduring and Recuperative Powers of Australian 



Grasses. Many of the native grasses have bulbous or thick 

 knotty bases, which no doubt are provided by Nature for 

 storing up food to sustain the plants during very dry weather, 

 and to preserve them from extinction. In adverse seasons 

 and during prolonged droughts, when every vestige of grass 

 foliage has disappeared, these swollen bases, which are gener- 

 ally enveloped in a woolly substance to prevent evaporation, 



