Order GRAMINE/K. 



GENUS XIII. SPOROBOLUS, Brown. 



Spikclets minute, i -flowered, in spike-like contracted panicles. Empty 

 glumes 2. unequal, awnless. Flowering glume sessile, awnless. Palea 

 large. Scales 2. Stamens i 3. Grain free, terete, with a lax pericarp. 

 DISTRIBUTION OK GENUS: TROPICAL and SUB-TROPICAL 

 CLIMATES, southern parts of AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND. 

 Etymology : From two Greek words meaning " a seed," and " casting 

 forth," from the grain being easily shaken out. 



1. SPOROBOLUS ELONGATUS. 



RAT-TAIL, OB CHILIAN GRASS. 



(Plate XVI IL) 



SPOROBOLIS INDICUS, Benth. Fl. Austral., VII. SPOROBOLUS ELONGATUS, 

 R. Brown. Hook, fil., Fl. N.Z., I., 295 ; Handb. N.Z. Flora, I., 326. 



A HARD, wiry, tough, glabrous grass, at low altitudes. Flowers Novem- 

 ber January. Perennial. Roots wiry, fibrous, creeping. Stem i 2 

 feet high. Leaves spreading, flat or involute ; ligide short, sheaths 

 furrowed. Panicle 6 12 inches long, spike-like, much contracted, 

 sometimes lobed below. Spikelets pedicelled. Empty glumes small, 

 unequal, i -nerved. Flowering glume much larger, oblong-acuminate, 

 3-nerved. Palea oblong-acuminate, i-nerved. Scales narrow, acute. 

 Ovary abrupt at top, sessile. Anthers stout, short. Stigmas nearly 

 sessile, feathery. Grain terete, truncate at top, and pointed at base ; 

 often found adherent to the mouth of the floret. DISTRIBUTION or 

 SPECIES: THE SAME AS THE GENUS, probably introduced to 

 New Zealand. 



This grass affords good pasture for horses and cattle, but, from its tough 

 fibrous structure, is not adapted for sheep ; and, as it spreads with great rapidity 

 by the roots, it would be injudicious to introduce it on sheep-runs. In the 

 neighbouring Colony of Victoria much ground has been overrun by this grass 

 within the last few years, to the great detriment of the pasture, as it chokes out 



