188 



Vernacular names. >" Oat Grass/' " Wild Oats," " Sea-side Brome 

 Grass." It has even been called " Barley Grass " not at all an 

 appropriate name. 



Where figured. Buchanan; Labillardiere ; Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 661). Apparently annual, from 1 

 to about li feet high. 



Leaves flat, flaccid, softly hairy or pubescent. 



Panicle at first erect, at length drooping, the capillary branches clustered, the 



longer ones 2 to 3 inches long, with one to four spikelets on capillary pedicels. 

 Spikelets lanceolate, \ to f inch long without the awns, flat, five- to nine- flowered. 

 Glumes all pubescent or glabrous, the lowest about 3 lines long and five-nerved, the 



second longer and seven-nerved, both empty and acute. 

 Flowering glumes rather longer, about seven-nerved, convex on the back, the awn free 



from a little below the scarious tip, ^ to f inch long. 



Var. macrostachya, Benth. Spikelets 1 inch long, each with fifteen 

 to twenty flowers. Yass, Darling River, &c. 



Value as a fodder. An ornamental grass, which, while not of the 

 first-class, is a useful fodder plant. It cannot stand drought, withering 

 off as the hot weather approaches. Buchanan speaks of it as a common 

 sea-side weed, which, from its dry woolly nature, is very unpalatable to 

 all kinds of stock. Others, e.g., Woolls, speak of it as " a fine grass 

 for cattle." Mr. A. R. Crawford writes to me concerning it : " I 

 received a few seeds of this grass from the Castlereagh, and cultivated 

 it on the eastern slopes for many years. It is much liked by stock, 

 is fattening, makes a good hay, and is quite an ornamental grass." 



Fungus found on this grass. Ustilago bromivora, Waldh., on this 

 species, and also B. mollis. Septoria bromi, Sacc., has also been 

 recorded from the leaves of Bromus sp. 



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

 also occurring in New Zealand. Found in most districts of New South 

 Wales. 



98. FESTUCA. 



Spikelets several-flowered, pedicellate, in loose and spreading or 

 compact and erect more or less one-sided panicles, the rhachis of the 

 spikelet articulate under the flowering glumes, glabrous or nearly so. 



Outer empty glumes narrow, acute, keeled, usually unequal. 



Flowering glumes narrow, acute, or tapering into an untwisted awn 

 or rarely obtuse, rounded on the back, faintly nerved. 



Palea narrow, with prominent nerves or keels. 



Ovary glabrous. 



Styles very short, distinct. 



Grain enclosed in the glume and palea and more or less adnate. 



2. Festuca duriuscula, Linn. 



Botanical name. Festuca Latin, the shoot or stalk of a tree or 

 herb (the appellation not being specially appropriate) ; duriuscula 

 Latin, somewhat rough or harsh, the texture of the grass being thus 

 described. 



