81 



11. Andropogon bombycinus, E.Br. 



Botanical Name. Bombycinus Latin, silken, or made of silk, in 

 allusion to appearance of tfie inflorescence. 



Vernacular names. " Woolly-headed Grass/' or tf Silky-heads." 



Where figured. Bailey, Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description. (B. Fl., vii, 533). An erect rigid perennial 

 grass of 1-| to 3 feet, usually glabrouo, except a little silky pubescence 

 on the lower leaf-sheaths, the nodes glabrous or shortly bearded. 



Leaves narrow, flat, rather rigid, the liquid, very prominent, entire. 



Panicle shortly branched, 3 to 6 inches long, with sheathing bracts of 1 to 2 inches 



under the branches. 

 Peduncles usually shorter than the bracts, bearing each a narrow sheathing bract 



and two very densely woolly-hairy spikes of ^ to 1 inch, at first erect, but soon 



spreading and reflexed. 



Sessile spikelets two to five, concealed by silvery-silky hairs. 

 Outer glumes acute, many-nerved, but the two lateral nerves much more prominent, 



especially as the flowering advances, and the intermediate ones becoming almost 



obliterated or visible only towards the end of the glume. 

 Second glume thin, with a prominent keel, produced into a short point ; third very 



thin, faintly three-nerved ; terminal flowering glume very thin and hyaline, 



shortly bifid, with a very fine awn scarcely exceeding the spikelet, or entire 



without any awn. 

 Pedicellate spikelets reduced to a single narrow many-nerved glume of 2J to 3 lines. 



Value as a fodder. Some pastoralists speak highly of this grass, 

 and when it is young there is no doubt it yields most nutritious pasturage. 

 It is highly drought-resisting. Queensland observers speak of it in 

 qualified terms. O'Shanesy says it is not at all relished by stock, and 

 Bailey says it is only cropped by stock in early growth. It is well 

 known that stock avoid grasses with much silky or woolly vestiture if 

 they can. 



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

 occurs in shifting sand and in the hottest interior districts ; but it is 

 also found east to the tableland. 



13. Andropogon refractus, H.Br. 



Botanical name. Refractus Latin, broken, in allusion to the 

 broken or reflexed appearance of the inflorescence. 



Vernacular names. Often called " Kangaroo-grass" because of its 

 resemblance to the true kangaroo-grass (Anthistiria ciliata) . " Broken- 

 spiked Grass" is a name coined by Bailey. It is the " Turpentine- 

 grass" of O'Shanesy, so called owing to the odour of its roots. 



Wlnere, figured. Bailey, Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. FL, vii, 534). A glabrous erect grass of 

 about 2 feet, with the narrow leaves, paniculate inflorescence, and 

 sheating bracts of A. schoenanthus , and the spikes similarly two 

 together, about J inch long, on short bracteate peduncles, but much 

 more divaricate, soon reflexed, and glabrous except a small tuft of 

 short hairs at the base of the sessile spikelets. 



Sessile spikelets, two to five, 2^ to 3 lines long. 



Outer glume acute, many-nerved ; second, narrow and keeled ; third, thin and hyaline ; 

 terminal or flowering glume hyaline, narrow, either two-lobed with an awn slightly 

 exceeding the spikelet, or more frequently entire or nearly so and awnless. 



Pedicellate spikelets neuter, or rarely with a male flower ; the outer glume many- 

 nerved. 



