33 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 472). 

 Stems from a branching base, 1 to 2 feet high. 

 Leaves narrow, long or short, usually glabrous. 



Panicle of few long slender and erect spike-like branches, very unequal, and some- 

 times reduced to two nearly equal ones, or to a single one, the longest 3 to 4 

 inches, or in some very lax Queensland specimens, 5 inches long ; secondary 

 branches short, slender, erect, the lower ones with four or five sessile or pedi- 

 cellate spikelets, the upper ones with only one or two. 



Spikelets scarcely 1| lines long, rather acute, densely covered with long silky, silvery, 

 or purple hairs, often spreading when in fruit. 



Outer glume scarcely line long, obtuse. 



Second and third glumes nearly equal and empty, both densely hairy, the second 

 usually three-nerved ; the third, five-nerved. 



Fruiting glume shorter, smooth, rather acute, and often slightly gibbous at the base. 



Botanical notes. Var. monostachyon, Bentli. Spike simple as in 

 P. gibbosumj but the outer glume present. (Western New South 

 Wales.) 



As observed by Bentham, the Australian forms of this species vary 

 much, especially in the degree of development of the inflorescence 

 and the size of the spikelets. 



Value as a fodder. A grass more particularly valuable for the 

 drier districts of the Colony as it is an excellent resister of drought, 

 and it produces a fair quantity of palatable feed. Like most other 

 grasses, it produces more favourable results with better soil and 

 increased moisture. 



Other uses. The fibrous under part of the leaf is peeled off when 

 young, and twisted with the fingers, as it is drawn off into a thread, 

 and used by Queensland aborigines to make twine. (E. Palmer.) 



Habitat and range. In all the colonies, except Tasmania, most 

 usually in the drier districts, but by no means exclusively so ; it is not 

 uncommon in the Queensland coast districts. It occurs also in 

 tropical Africa and America. 



13. Panicum semialatum, E.Br. 



Botanical name. Semialatum, half-winged, from the Latin, semi 

 half ; alatum winged, perhaps in allusion to the membranous outer 

 glume, which is about half the length of the spikelet. 



Vernacular name. " Cockatoo Grass " of parts of Queensland. 



Where, figured. Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 472). 



Stems erect, 2 to 3 feet high, silky-pubescent about the nodes, otherwise glabrous, or 

 nearly so. 



Leaves narrow, with involute margins or subulate, usually pubescent, the lower ones 



sometimes densely clothed with long silky hairs. 

 Panicle 3 to 6 inches long, consisting of two to five long erect or slightly diverging 



branches, clustered at the end of a long peduncle. 



Spikelets 2 to 2 lines long, few together, in erect clusters or short branches along 

 the rhachis. 



Glumes all ending in a short subulate point, the outer one membranous, three 

 nerved, about half the length of the spikelet. 



