37 



Botanical description (B. FL, vii, 478). — 



Stems decumbent or creeping, and rooting at the lower nodes ; slender, and ascend- 

 ing to 1 foot, or rather more. 



Leaves flat, glabrous, or with a few hairs, especially at the orifice of the sheaths. 



Panicle, a few (usually two to four, but occasionally six or seven) distant simple 

 secund branches, 1 to 2 inches long, at first erect, at length spreading or reflexed, 

 the rhachis slender or slightly dilated, often sprinkled with a few hairs. 



Spikelets sometimes loosely alternate along the rhachis almost in a single row ; some- 

 times more numerous and approximate in two distinct rows, sessile or shortly 

 stipitate, ovoid, rather acute, 1^ lines long, quite glabrous. 



Outer glume scarcely half the length of the spikelets, thin, very broad, the margins 

 overlapping each other. 



Second and third glumes nearly equal, prominently three-nerved ; a narrow palea in 

 the third. 



Fruiting glume nearly as long, very obtuse, hardened, but the three nerves very 

 visible. 



Value as a fodder. — A valuable grass, yielding abundance of nutri- 

 tious feed. A correspondent from the Wilcannia district refers to it 

 as a " sweet and hardy grass." It is undoubtedly of great value for 

 the western as well as the northern districts. It is one of several 

 indigenous grasses tested at Gracemere, near Rockhampton (Queens- 

 land), and considered to be the best for hay-making. Bailey recom- 

 mends it to be sown with Landsborough grass (Anthistiria mem- 

 branacea) for the purpose of hay. O'Shanesy, also referring to 

 Queensland, remarks that it is of considerable value as fodder, but 

 that it must be sown thickly, as otherwise it grows too rank. Duthie 

 states that as a fodder-grass it is probably as nutritious as any of the 

 other Indian Panicums, but less plentiful. 



Other uses. — It has been recommended for consolidating river banks. 



Habitat and range. — In the drier parts of the Colony, principally; 

 also in South Australia, Queensland, and Northern Australia. Widely 

 distributed over Eastern India and the Malayan Archipelago. 



25. Panicum reversum, P.v.M. 



Botanical name. — Reversum, Latin " turned back," the branches 

 and the panicle being reflexed (bent or turned back) as shown in the 

 drawing. 



Where figured. — Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 478). — A weak, glabrous, rather 

 glaucous, much-branched grass. 

 Leaves long and narrow. 

 Panicle usually of three or four simple distant branches, at first erect, but soon 



spreading, and at length reflexed like those of P. distachyum. 

 Rhachis generally, though not always, dilated, produced into a rigid point beyond 

 the last spikelet, and bearing under the lowest spikelet a rigid linear bristle (an 

 abortive branch ?) as long as the spikelet. 

 Spikelets not numerous, alternate and distant along the rhachis so as to appear in 

 one row ; ovoid, oblong, fully 2 lines long in some specimens, rather under 2 

 lines in Drummond's. 

 Outer glume three-nerved, obtuse, at least three-quarters the length of the spikelet. 

 Second and third glumes equal, many nerved, both empty in the spikelets I examined, 



but F. Mueller found a palea in the third. 

 Fruiting glume hardened, as in the genus. 



Value as a fodder. — We know very little about the value of this 

 grass for fodder ; but, as it is very easily recognised, perhaps friends 



