70 



Victorian writer, describes it as " perennial, 1 to 2J feet high. Com- 

 mon about salt marshes and lakes, vegetates late, keeps green through 

 the hot weather, and is then a favourite food with stock, which do not 

 seem to care about it in the winter. Often affected with rust." 

 Roxburgh says that cattle are fond of it. (Duthie.) 

 Habitat and range. Found in all the colonies. In New South Wales 

 confined to the coast district of Dividing Range. Occurs also in 

 South Asia and South Africa. 



Sub-tribe iv. ETJANDROPOGONEJE. 



24. Heteropogon. 30. Imperata. 



25. Ishsemum. 31. Chrysopogon. 



27. Arthraxon. 32. Sorghum. 



28. Pollinia. 33. Anthistiria. 



29. Andropogon. 34. Apluda. 



24. HETEROPOGON. 



Spikelets one-flowered, monoecious, in pairs in the notches of the 

 articulate rhachis of a simple one-sided spike ; the females sessile, 

 cylindrical, turned to one side of the spike ; the males lanceolate, 

 awnless, shortly pedicellate, imbricate on the other side of the spike. 



Glumes in the female spikelet four ; the outer one hard convolute, 

 the second keeled, the third very thin and hyaline, fourth or terminal 

 glume a hard twisted and bent awn, attenuate and flexuose, or narrow 

 and hyaline at the base, as in Andropogon. 



Palea very small and thin, or none. 



Styles distinct. 



Grain enclosed in the hardened glumes, but free from them. 



1. Heteropogon contortus, Rcem. et Schult. 



Botanical name. Heteropogon, from the Greek heteros, irregular or 

 variable, perhaps from the circumstance that the hairs on the outer 

 glume and on the armed point of the flowering glume are different in 

 colour and texture ; pogon, a beard ; contortus, entangled, referring to 

 the twisted awns, which become entangled, and give the plant a 

 matted appearance. 



Synonym. Andropogon contortus, Linn., in F.v.M. Census. 



Vernacular names. "Bunch Spear-grass," "Twisted Beard Grass." 



Where figured. Vasey, Duthie, Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. FL, vii, 517). 



Stems ascending or erect, 1 to 2 feet high. 



Leaves narrow, ciliate with a few long hairs, the sheaths flattened. 



Spikes pedunculate, 1 to 2 inches long without the awns. 



Male or barren spikelets 3 to 4 lines long, green, ciliate, closely imbricate in two rows 



along one side of the spike, almost concealing the females. 

 Female spilcelets narrow, the outer glume hard, obtuse, convolute ; the second 



narrow, with a hard centre, the hairs surrounding the spikelet brown and silky, 

 protruding often to 2 inches, and very much twisted. 



