139 



Outer glumes acute, above \ inch, and sometimes nearly 1 inch long. 



Flowering glumes usually four to eight, not exceeding the outer ones, the lobes 

 lanceolate, with a broad or narrow hyaline margin, acute or tapering into a point 

 or rather a short fine awn, the long hairs of the cilia copious at the base and 

 margins, and forming a ring round the back immediately under the lobes, the 

 twisted awn varying from \ to 1 inch. 



Palea longer than the entire base of the glume, often two-pointed. 



Botanical Notes. The common form,, apparently abundant in the 

 Southern Colonies, has usually a compact narrow panicle and the pale 

 or greenish outer glumes often smooth and shining. The loose-flowered 

 form with the outer glumes dark-coloured appears to be chiefly about 

 Port Jackson and the Blue Mountains, and occasionally in Tasmania. 



Var. alpina. : Stems short and densely tufted. Leaves rather stout, 

 convolute and very glabrous. Australian Alps. 



Value as a fodder. A valuable grass when young, but in arid country 

 it becomes very harsh when old. A Wilcannia correspondent writes : 

 " Grows strong on country near the tank, but nothing will eat it, not 

 even the rabbits, and there is no sign of any other feed. On Baden 

 Park and Mount Manaro Stations with same results." 



Habitat and Range. Found in all the colonies, and in most parts of 

 New South Wales, from the coast to the interior. Perhaps our most 

 widely diffused Danthonia. 



11. Danthonia pauciflora, E.Br. 



Botanical name. Pauciflora, Latin, pauci few, flos-floris flower; few- 

 flowered, the panicle containing but few flowers. 

 Vernacular name. " Few-flowered Oat-grass." 

 Where figured. Buchanan; Hooker, .FZ. Tasmania. 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 596). A small plant forming low 

 dense branching tufts of fine rigid leaves not above 1 inch long and 

 the stems not above 6 inches, or when luxuriant both weaker and longer. 



Panicle ovoid, of few shortly pedicellate spikelets, sometimes reduced to 2 or 3. 



Outer glumes three lines long or rather more. 



Flowering glumes 3 or 4, very short, with short broad lobes, acute or with short fine 

 awns, the hairs chiefly at the base and margins not forming a transverse ring, 

 the central awn rather longer than the lobes or lateral awns. 



Palea obtuse. 



Var. ? alpina, F.v.M. Panicle small and narrow. Glumes small, 

 the flowering ones with very few hairs and very short awns, but with 

 the short broad lateral lobes of the typical form. Summits of the 

 Australian Alps. 



Value as a fodder. A small Alpine pasture grass. Its small rigid 

 leaves do not recommend it as a pasture grass, yet, from its evident 

 perennial habit, it may prove valuable on those higher altitudes 

 where few grasses can exist. (Buchanan.) It is cropped by sheep. 



Habitat and Range. Found in Tasmania, Victoria, and New South 

 Wales, as well as in New Zealand. In Victoria and New South 

 Wales on the Australian Alps. 



