80 



thrive and be at home, furnishing at the time of the year, when other 

 fodder is scarce, food for the animals employed on the sugar estates. 

 If cut shortly after it flowers, just as the fruit is setting, it forms 

 valuable food for horses, cattle, and mules, who then seem to eat it 

 with relish, but if it is allowed to get over-ripe the stems become hard 

 and unpalatable, the animals then only eating the leaves and tender 

 parts, unless it is chaffed up and given them with the addition of oil- 

 cake and molasses. It is propagated by root-cuttings, the cuttings 

 being placed in holes about 1 foot apart each way, when it soon 

 spreads, covering the whole surface of the land. It goes on ratoon- 

 ing for many years, giving two and sometimes three cuttings annually. 

 The yield varies with the soil, rainfall, and manurial treatment, but 

 the average yield, without manure, may be set down from 5 to 7 tons 

 per acre per annum. With the application of manure the yield is 

 greatly increased, an acre then giving from 10 to 12 tons of fodder 

 yearly." (Kew Bulletin, September, 1895.) 



Habitat and range. Occurs in South Australia, Victoria and Queens- 

 land, as well as our own Colony. With us it is very widely diffused, 

 extending over most parts of the Colony. It is also found in tropical 

 Asia. 



7. Andropogon intermedius, R.Br. 



Botanical name. Intermedius Latin, between, in allusion to its 

 affinities with A. ischasmum and A. pertusum, which causes it to be 

 intermediate, in some respects, between these species. 



Synonym. A. punctatus, Roxb., in Mueller's Census. 



Where figured. Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. FL, vii, 531). An erect grass of. 2 feet or 

 more, with the narrow leaves and general habit of A. ischdemum, the 

 nodes varying with or without beards. 



Spikes slender, 1 to 1 inches long, usually numerous, all shortly pedicellate in an 



oblong terminal panicle of 3 or 4 inches without sheathing bracts ; the common 

 Rhachis glabrous and always more or less elongated, the pedicels and base of the 



sessile spikelets more or less ciliate. 

 Spikelets under 2 lines long, narrow and acute or scarcely obtuse, and often purplish, 



as in A. ischcemum. 

 Outer glume often, but not always even in the same spike, marked with a dorsal pit, 



as in A. pertusus. 

 Awn small and slender. 

 Pedicellate spikelet more developed than in A. ischcemum, and often enclosing a male 



flower. 



Botanical notes. Outer glume often, but not always even in the 

 same spike, marked with a dorsal pit, as in A. pertusus. This is 

 alluded to in the synonymic name (A. punctatus} of A. intermedius. 



Value as a fodder. A rather coarse grass which yields, when young, 

 a large quantity of nutritious fodder. It has been recommended by 

 Bailey for planting river sides. 



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

 Is said to be common on springy land on the borders of rivers in 

 Queensland. In our own Colony it does not appear to be very common. 

 It occurs from the tableland to the interior. It is also found in Asia. 



