52 



Other uses. In former years, the seeds of this grass were gathered 

 in large quantities by the aborigines as an article of food, and being 

 ground between two stones, were converted into a kind of meal. 



Habitat and range. Found in all the colonies except Tasmania and 

 Western Australia, in the interior. 



O'Shanesy speaks in the following words of a Queensland grass, 

 probably allied to the last few species : " Also from the seeds of a tall 

 grass (evidently a Panicum], known by the aborigines as f Pawpa/ 

 which is treated in a similar manner to the yellow-box seeds. Hats 

 are made from the stem of this grass simply by sewing them together/' 



4. OPLISMENUS. 



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 Panicum. 



Lower branches of the panicle ^ to 2 inches long ... ... ... 1.0. compositus. 



All the branches of the panicle reduced to sessile clusters ... 2. 0. setarius. 



1. Oplismenus compositus, Beauv. 



Botanical name. Oplismenus, from the Greek, opleei armed (verb 

 oplizo), perhaps in allusion to the slender but prominent awns ; 

 compositus, Latin, composite or set together, the inflorescence being 

 much more composite than 0. setarius, and perhaps than all other 

 species of Oplismenus. 



Where figured. Trinius, Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. FL, vii., 491). Usually a weak grass, softly 

 pubescent or villous, but sometimes nearly glabrous. 



Stems decumbent or creeping and rooting at the base, ascending sometimes to abore 



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 four to eight 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 \ 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. 



Glumes, 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. 



Value as a fodder. Affords a bite for stock, but it is so closely 

 appressed to the ground that they do not often touch it ; it may also 

 not be palatable. 



