Australian Grasses. 45 



PASPALUM, Linn. 



(From Paspalos, one of the Greek names for Millet.) 



SPIKELETS one-flowered, not awned, not callous at the base, in. one or two 

 rows along one side of slender spikes, either forming the branches of a 

 simple panicle, or rarely solitary. Glumes three, two outer ones empty, 

 usually membranous, and equal or nearly so, the third flowering of a firmer 

 texture. Palea within the flowering glume smaller and more involute. 

 Styles distinct, rather long. Grain enclosed in the hardened palea and 

 flowering glume, and free from them. 



Paspalum distiehum, Linn. (Arranged in two rows.) " AVater Couch." 

 Stems often creeping and rooting in the sands to a great extent, the 

 ascending extremities varying: from short, and entirely covered with the 

 leaf-sheaths, to slender 1 foot long or more, with the leaves distant. Leaves 

 either linear-lanceolate and flat or involute and almost subulate, glabrous, 

 or with a few long hairs at the orifice of the sheath and base of the lamina. 

 Spikes two, close together, or the lowest at a distance of 1 lir.e to 2 lines, 

 quite glabrous, the rhachis not above | line broad. Spikelets sessile, in two 

 rows, oval-oblong, acute, or acuminate, flat, l- to nearly 2 lines long. 

 O liter empty glumes equal, and distinctly three-nerved. Fruiting glume 

 hardened, and very faintly three-nerved, or the central nerve alone per- 

 ceptible. 



This creeping, rapid-growing, perennial grass is found in New South 

 "Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia, and generally in swampy places 

 or on moist land, and sometimes in water, but always in the coastal districts, 

 and sometimes close to the sea. It is particularly well adapted for covering- 

 waste moist lands, the banks of rivers and dams, which it binds very firmly 

 once its underground stems get well established in the soil. Periodical 

 inundations will not destroy it, but it is injured by severe frosts. This grass 

 yields a great quantity of valuable herbage, which stock of all descriptions are 

 remarkably fond of, and fatten on. It is highly spoken of by the dairymen in 

 the coastal districts of this country. It is not a good grass, how ever, for making 

 into hay, as it turns black in drying. It is said that butter made from the 

 milk of cows fed exclusively on its herbage is quite white, but in no other 

 way is it affected. Under ordinary circumstances this species remains 

 beautifully green throughout the summer months, and some persons have 

 been tempted to plant it on lawns, with rather serious consequences, however, 

 for to keep it in anything like order during the summer months it requires 

 cutting two or three times a week, and is as bad as ordinary couch lo get out 

 of cultivated land. It produces an abundance of seed, which ripens in 

 January, February, and March. There is a variety (var. littoralc) of this 

 grass, which is found only in, or near, brackish swamps, and differs only from 

 the one here described by its narrower leaves ; with these exceptions, its 

 qualities are much the same. 



Baron von Mueller and L. Hummel give the following chemical analysis 

 of Paspalum distichum, Linn., made during the spring time of the year : 

 Albumen, 2'20; gluten, 771; starch, 156; gum, rtM.j sugar, 5'00 percent. 



Reference, to plate. A, A portion of the spike, showing the arragement of the spikelets 

 on the rhachis. B, A spikelet, showing the cuter glumes, fruiting glume, and palea. 

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



