34 Australian Grasses. 



OPLISMENUS, Beauv. 



(From lioplismenos, awned ; referring to the awns on the spikelets.) 



SPIKELETS with one terminal hermaphrodite flower, and a rudimentary one 

 below it, awned, clustered along the secund distant branches of a simple 

 panicle. Glumes four, the lowest empty one not much shorter than the 

 others and with a longer awn, the flowering glume awnless and hardened 

 with the palea round the grain as in Panic urn. 



Oplismenus compositus, Beauv. (Composite.) "Awned Pauick Grass." 

 Usually a weak grass, softly pubescent or villous, but sometimes nearly 

 glabrous. Stems decumbent or creeping and rooting at the base, ascending 

 sometimes to above 1 foot. Leaves from linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 

 4 to 5 inches long in the larger specimens, but more frequently under 2 

 inches. Panicle slender, consisting of 4 to 8 or rarely more distant one- 

 sided branches or spikes, of which the lowest slender ones are 2 inches 

 long in the most luxuriant specimens, scarcely i an inch long in others, the 

 upper ones, or sometimes the greater number, reduced to short clusters. 

 Spikelets glabrous pubescent or hirsute, rather above 1 line long, in distinct 

 clusters of two or three each along the longer branches, crowded on the 

 shorter ones. G-lumes, three lower ones membranous, five-nerved, the lowest 

 not much shorter than the others, tapering into a rather long smooth awn, 

 the second with a small point or short awn, or only acuminate, the third 

 rather larger, awnless, with a small hyaline palea or rudimentary flower in 

 its axil ; flowering glume nerveless, smooth, and hard, as well as the palea 

 round the grain. 



A slender, perennial, somewhat hairy grass, with decumbent or creeping 

 stems, nearly always found growing under the dense shade of trees, and 

 principally in scrubs in the coastal districts of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 and Queensland, but also on the Blue Mountains in the former colony. 

 This species is of very little value for forage purposes, as stock seldom or 

 never touch it, but it is a most useful grass for planting under the dense 

 shade of trees or buildings, where very little else would grow. If used for 

 that purpose it would soon form a pleasing feature in what is often a great 

 eyesore in shady places, as it makes a great amount of growth in a very 

 short time. This grass is easily propagated by pieces of its stems or from 

 seed. The best time to plant is in spring and autumn, and the best time to 

 sow is in August, after rainfall if possible. In the coastal districts of this 

 country I have seen acres of scrub-land covered with this grass, which formed 

 a most beautiful carpet of green under the dense growing trees. 



There are two other species (Oplismenus setarius, JR. et $., and Panicum 

 pygmceum, JR. Br.) of grasses indigenous to Australia, which grow under 

 similar conditions to the one under notice, and I would particularly draw 

 the attention of Australian foresters to the value of these grasses for planting 

 in forests as preventives against bush-fires. If these grasses were estab- 

 lished in young plantations of cedar, beech, cowrie, hoop-pine, and other 

 coastal growing trees, they would prove a great safeguard to the plantations 

 during the summer months, when bush-fires are sometimes prevalent. There 

 is a beautiful variegated form of the Oplismenus compositus which is well 

 worth cultivation in gardens. The typical form of this grass bears a fair 

 amount of seed, which ripens during the late summer and autumn months, 

 so that there would be little difficulty in collecting seed for dissemination in 

 any portion of the continent where it may not already be growing. 



Reference to plate. A, Showing the arrangement of the spikelets on the rhachis. B, An 

 open spikelet showing the four glumes and two paleas. c, Grain, back and front views. 

 All variously magnified. 



