Australian Grasses. 15 



BROMUS, Linn. 



(From a Greek name for the Wild Oat.) 



SPIKELETS several-flowered, oblong or lanceolate, pedicellate, erect or 

 drooping, in a more or less branched panicle, the rhachis of the spikelet 

 articulate between the flowering glumes, glabrous or scabrous-pubescent. 

 Outer empty glumes acute or tine-pointed, unawned. Flowering glumes 

 convex on the back, five or seven nerved ; the hyaline apex usually shortly 

 bifid; the mid-rib produced into a straight or curved awn, free from a little 

 below the apex. Palea nearly as long as the glume, the two prominent 

 nerves usually scabrous-ciliate. Ovary obovate, crowned by a hairy mem- 

 branous appendage, the very short distinct styles more or less lateral. 

 Grain flattened, adhering to the palea, and often more or less to the base of 

 the glume. 



Bromus arenarius, Labill. (Found on sandy soil.) " Broine, Oat, or 

 Barley Grass." An annual, from 1 foot to about 1^ feet high. Leaves 

 flat, flaccid, softly hairy or pubescent. Panicle at first erect, at length 

 drooping ; the capillary branches clustered, the longer ones 2 to 3 inches 

 long, with one to four spikelets on capillary pedicels. Spikelets lanceo- 

 late, i to | of an inch long without the awns, flat, five to nine flowered. 

 Glumes all pubescent or glabrous, the lowest about 3 lines long and 

 five-nerved, the second longer and seven-nerved, both empty and acute ; 

 flowering glumes rather longer, about seven-nerved, convex on the back, the 

 awn free from a little below the scarious tip % to f of an inch long. 



There is a variety (var. macros lacliij a) of this species with spikelets 1 inch 

 long, each with fifteen to twenty flowers, found only, as far as I know, in 

 the interior. The specimen, from which the accompanying drawing was 

 made, was collected near the Darling lliver, in New South Wales. Both 

 the species and the variety are annuals only. The former may be found 

 growing nearly all over Australia and also in New Zealand. The variety, 

 however, appears to be restricted to the habitat already indicated. These 

 grasses make their growth during the winter and early spring months, and 

 on this account are good additions to the pastures, especially in the interior, 

 for during that time of the year most of the superior indigenous grasses are 

 id a dormant condition. On rich lands in the interior that are liable to 

 periodical inundations, these grasses, whilst young, yield a fair amount of 

 succulent herbage, of which herbivora of all kinds are remarkably fond. 

 The early spring growths are valuable forage for sheep at the season of 

 lambing, which helps to tide over a critical time, until the superior grasses 

 start into growth. For this reason pastoralists in the interior speak in 

 favourable terms of them. In the coastal districts, however, where most 

 other kinds of grasses are plentiful nearly all the year round, the " brome 

 grass " is not so favourably spoken of. When left unmolested for a time 

 these grasses produce plenty of seed, which usually ripens in the interior in 

 September and October, but in the coastal districts generally one month 

 later. 



Reference to plate of Bromus arenarius. A, Spikelet. B, Floret, c, Grain, back and 

 front views. All variously magnified. 



Reference to plate of Bromus arenarius, var. macrostachya. A, Spikelet. B, Floret, 

 c, Grain, back and front views. All variously magnified. 



