190 



1. Agropyrum seabmm, Beauv. 



Botanical name. Agropyrum (more properly Agropyron] Greek, 

 agros } a field ; puros, wheat, owing to the resemblance of these grasess 

 to wheat ; scabrum Latin for rough, in allusion to the foliage. 



Synonym. Triticum scabrum, R. Br. 



Vernacular names. Mr. Bailey remarks that in New Zealand it often 

 has a bluish tinge, and hence has received from the settlers the names 

 of " Blue Tussac-grass " and " Blue Oat-grass," and adds that 

 neither of which is suitable to the grass as seen in Australia. It would, 

 however, appear to have a bluer appearance when growing in New 

 South Wales than in Queensland. I have never seen a bluer and 

 more glaucous looking grass than this species often presents in New 

 England. 



The name <( Wheat-grass " is sometimes given to it in this Colony. 

 It is closely related to the wheats, although it does not closely resemble, 

 in appearance, those useful grasses. 



Where figured. Buchanan (as Triticum scabrum} ; Bacchus (as 

 Festuca Billardieri) ; Labillardiere as Festuca scabra ; Agricultural 

 Gazette. 



Botanical Description (B. Fl., vii., 665). Very variable as to stature, 

 sometimes under 1 foot high, slender with short filiform leaves, and 

 from that to 3 or 4 feet with narrow spreading flat or convolute leaves. 

 Spike usually 6 inches to 1 foot long, the rhdcJiis scarcely notched. 



Spikelets distant, sessile, erect, f to 1 inch long without the awns, narrow, six- to 

 twenty-flowered ; in the small specimens, sometimes only one or two spikelets. 



Glumes narrow, rigid, straw-coloured, mostly about five-nerved, not distinctly keeled, 

 the two outer empty ones rather shorter, tapering into short points, the flowering 

 ones 4 to 6 lines long without the awns, tapering into fine straight or at length 

 spreading awns mostly longer than the glumes and sometimes above 1 inch long ; 

 those of the upper and of the lower glumes often not so long as the intermediate 

 ones. 



Palea obtuse. 



Botanical notes. A large tufted, often straggling, grass, often of a 

 bluish-green colour, rather harsh, commonly 1 or 2 feet long ; but on 

 the Lachlan Eiver, found by the late K. H. Bennett, up to 6 feet long, 

 according to Baron von Mueller. 



Buchanan figures a weak, elongated form, often 3 or 4 feet long, 

 and trailing on the ground, under the name of variety tenue. 



Value as a fodder. " A rather harsh grass when in seed, but 

 during winter and early spring it supplies a large quantity of feed. 

 On poor land its height would be about a foot, but on good land it 

 attains 3 or 4 feet. Cut when in flower it makes good hay ; the seeds 

 are not injurious." (Bailey.) 



When young there is no question not only as to its palatableness, 

 but also as to its nutritious character. 



The early settlers of New Zealand looked upon it as a good horse 

 and cattle grass, and Buchanan calls it an excellent fodder, if cut in 

 flower. 



