57 



8. CENCHBUS. 



Spikelets with, one terminal hermaphrodite flower, and sometimes a 

 male one below it, not awned, singly or two or three together, within 

 an ovoid or globular involucre of numerous bristles, the inner ones 

 usually broad and flattened, connected at the base and hardened 

 round the fruit, the involucres sessile or pedicellate in a simple spike 

 or raceme, and falling off with the spikelets. 



Glumes four, the outer one much smaller, sometimes minute, the 

 second and third nearly equal, or the second shorter, a palea and 

 sometimes three stamens in the third. 



Fruiting glume more rigid than the other, but not so much hardened 

 as in Panicum. 



Styles usually very shortly united at the base. 



Nut enclosed in the fruiting glume and palea, free from them. 



1. Cenchrus australis, E.Br. 



Botanical name. Cenchrus, from a Greek word for "millet" (equi- 

 valent to the Latin milium) ; australis, Latin, southern, in botanical 

 names it frequently indicates Australian. 



Vernacular names. " Large Burr-grass/ 1 " Scrub or Hillside Burr- 

 grass." 



Where figured. Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. FL, vii, 497). A stout glabrous grass, 

 attaining 6 to 9 feet. 



Leaves long and flat. 



Ligula split into cilia. 



Spike rather dense, 4 to 8 inches long. 



Rhachis slightly scabrous, pubescent. 



Involucres very shortly pedicellate, erect or at length reflexed, broadly ovoid, under 



4 lines long. 

 Inner bristles, or lobes, about ten, flattened and very shortly united at the base, 



plumose in the lower half, scabrous in the upper part, with reversed asperities, 



one sometimes but not frequently longer than the others. 

 Outer bristles numerous, unequal, subulate and scabrous from the base. 

 Spikelets always (?) solitary in the involucre and shorter than the inner lobes. 

 Outer glume short, obtuse, hyaline, nerveless. 

 Second glume acute, three or five nerved. 

 Third rather longer, five-nerved, with a palea and sometimes a male flower in its 



axil. 

 Fruiting glume as long. 



Value as a fodder. A long, scrambling, undesirable grass. The 

 herbage it affords is harsh and coarse, while its burrs cling to clothing 

 and to the bodies of animals. There is no doubt that it affords a 

 little feed when young, but I fancy most pastoralists consider that its 

 disadvantages outweigh its advantages. O'Shanesy's statement is 

 that it (C is very nutritious, but that its long spikes of clinging seeds 

 prevent cattle from feeding on it." 



Habitat and range. New South Wales and Queensland. O'Shanesy 

 gives its habitat as on moist banks. Bailey says whole hillsides on 



