20 Australian Grasses. 



DEYEUXIA, Clarion. 



(Named in honor of Nicholas Deyeux, a French chemist.) 



SPIKELETS one-flowered, pedicellate, or rarely sessile in a panicle, either 

 loose and spreading or narrow and spikelike ; the rhachis of the spikelet 

 articulate above the outer glumes, usually bearing a tuft of hairs round the 

 flowering glume, and usually produced beyond it in a small ciliate or rarely 

 glabrous bristle, very rarely bearing, an empty glume or imperfect flower, 

 sometimes very minute, rarely deficient. Glumes three, two outer ones 

 persistent, keeled, unawned ; flowering glume shorter and very thin, about 

 as long or rarely longer and membranous, broad, enclosing the flower, five- 

 nerved, with a fine dorsal awn usually bent and twisted, rarely short and 

 straight, or very rarely deficient. Palea thin, more than half as long as the 

 glume, faintly or prominently two-nerved. Styles distinct, short. Grain, 

 enclosed in the glume and palea, and sometimes partially adhering to them. 



Deyeuxia billardieri, Kuntli. (After J. J. Labillardiere.) " Bent-grass." 

 Stems sometimes very short and tufted, usually about 1 foot high or more ; 

 leafy to the inflorescence, which is usually enclosed at the base in the broad 

 sheath of the upper leaf. Panicle when fully out often nearly 1 foot long, 

 though sometimes much smaller, with long capillary-divided branches in 

 regular whorls. Outer glumes very narrow and pointed, about 3 lines long ; 

 flowering glume not half so long, quite glabrous, with two narrow pointed 

 teeth ; the dorsal awn attached much below the middle, and rather longer 

 than the outer glumes. Palea shorter and narrow. Rhacbis produced into a 

 hairy bristle. 



This species and Dcyeuxia forsteri (Eamth.) having many intermediate 

 forms are often closely connected, but in the typical species the plants are 

 so structurally different as to be easily distinguished. The details of the 

 inflorescence of this species are much larger than those of D. forsleri. 

 "When growing together even the most superficial observer cannot fail to 

 distinguish between the two ; D. billardieri has wide leaves and a slightly 

 reddish inflorescence, while D. forsteri has narrow leaves and a light-coloured 

 inflorescence. The " bent-grass " has an extensive range of growth, being 

 found in the coastal districts and on some of the high table-lands in all the 

 Australian Colonies, also in New Zealand and Tasmania. In some parts of 

 New England, and, indeed, in many other districts, it is very plentiful, and 

 in the summer-time, where it is protected from stock, it is quite a feature 

 in the pastures. It usually grows from 6 to 18 inches high, according to 

 the soil or situation it is found in. On rich moist pasture-land it will grow 

 throughout a greater part of the year, but on high dry land it will die about 

 the beginning of December. It is a capital winter and early spring grass, 

 and on good soils it yields a fair amount of rich succulent herbage, of which 

 sheep are very fond. It produces a quantity of seed, which usually ripens in 

 October, November, and December, according to situation. 



Reference to plate. A, Spikelcl. B, Floret, c, Grain, back and front views. All variously 

 magnified. 



