40 Australian Grasses. 



Panicum melananthum, F. v. M. (Eeferring to the dark-coloured 

 spikelets.) " Black-seeded Panick Grass." A glabrous grass of 2 feet or 

 more, decumbent at the base, and perhaps annual. Leaves flat and rather 

 broad, the ligula exceedingly short, ciliate. Panicle sessile or nearly so 

 within the last leaf, large and loose, with very numerous much-divided 

 capillary branches scattered along the main rhachis, and very rarely clustered. 

 Spikelets all pedicellate, about 1 line long, acute, glabrous, often dark- 

 coloured. Outer glume ovate, acute, one or sometimes three nerved, nearly 

 half the length of the spikelet ; second and third glumes nearly equal, acute, 

 rather broad, membranous, with usually five not prominent nerves, the third 

 quite empty without any palea. Fruiting glume smooth and shining. 



This grass is found in the coastal districts of ]X"ew South Wales, Victoria, 

 and Queensland, and also in New England, and on a few south-western 

 stations in the first-named Colony, but nowhere is it reported to be very 

 plentiful. It generally grows on moist lands, and in the warmer parts of 

 Australia will attain a height of about 3 feet. During the summer months 

 it yields a fair^ amount of succulent herbage which is much relished by stock. 

 Although it is* not adapted for cultivation in ordinary pastures, still it is 

 worth dissemination on low moist lands in the warmer parts of the continent 

 where it may not already be growing. On such lands it would yield good 

 herbage during the most adverse seasons of drought, and might be the means 

 of saving a number of stock from starvation during such periods. This grass 

 would, no doubt, pay to cultivate on irrigated land, for like most other 

 grasses it would improve in quality and yield under cultivation. I would 

 not recommend it for growing on the banks of rivers or dains, with an idea 

 of binding them, to prevent injury against the fury of flood-waters, because 

 its roots generally do not take such a firm hold of the ground as do those of 

 some other kinds of grasses which grow on moist land. 



The species under notice is easily distinguished from other grasses by its 

 large panicles of dark-coloured seeds. With this peculiarity, and with the 

 aid of the engraving, no one, even those who have no pretensions to a know- 

 ledge of grasses, will have any difficulty in identifying it. 



This grass produces a fair amount of seed, which usually ripens in Decem- 

 ber and January. 



Reference to plate. A, Showing the relative size of the other glume on the spikelet. B, 

 An open spikelet, showing the arrangement of the four glumes and palea. c, Grain, back 

 and front views. All variously magnified. 



