24 



Vernacular names. — " Early Spring Grass." " Everlasting Grass" 

 is an American name. 



Where figured. — Duthie (as E. poly st achy a) ; Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B.F1., vii, 462). — An erect grass, attaining 2 

 or 3 feet ; glabrous, except the inflorescence, and sometimes a slight 

 pubescence in the upper part. 



Leaves rather long, flat or convolute when dry. 



Spikes or panicle branches about five to eight, distant, erect, secund, the lowest often 



above 2 inches long, the others gradually shorter. 

 Rhachis, as well as the main axis, pubescent or hairy. 

 Spikelets all pedicellate, but often rather close. 

 Pedicels 1 to 2 lines long, usually bearing a few hairs. 

 Spikelet ovoid, acute or shortly acuminate, rather above 1£ lines long, seated on a 



thick annular or almost cupular disk, articulate on the pedicel. 

 Empty glumes membranous, broad, and usually five-nerved, or the inner one rather 



narrower and sometimes only three-nerved, both more or less hairy outside, and 



sometimes rather densely covered with long hairs. 

 Flowering glume much shorter, coriaceous, faintly three or five nerved ; obtuse, but 



the midrib produced into a point or awn as long as the outer glumes, as in Pani- 



cum helopus. 



Value as a fodder. — One of the best pasture grasses of the Colony, 

 particularly of the coast districts, though it will endure considerable 

 drought. It grows freely, is succulent, and much esteemed by stock. 



A good account of New South Wales experience with this grass 

 is by Mr. Seccombe, who experimented with it on the Richmond 

 River. He reported : " This perennial grass is fairly plentiful, and 

 in sheltered situations in this district it maintains some growth all the 

 winter. It grows rapidly from very early spring to late summer, and, 

 if undisturbed, reaches a length of 2 or 3 feet. It grows on various 

 kinds of soil. Under cultivation its growth is wonderful, as well as 

 its power of seed-producing. I took as much as six cuttings for seed 

 off my plot during the season 1894 to 1895. This grass has been 

 introduced to our district, no doubt through the agency of travelling 

 stock, for it can be found more or less on the old, much-used high- 

 ways. It is seldom seen to any satisfaction in open situations, as 

 stock and padamelons keep it cropped very close. This close 

 clipping has given rise to frequently-expressed ideas that Eriochloa 

 punctata banishes Mullumbimby Couch [Kyllingia monocephala, a 

 great pest. — J.H.M.] . It is a grass, I feel confident, our dairy- 

 farmers should introduce to their holdings ; it has great vitality, 

 unquestionable milk and butter qualities, as well as the invaluable 

 property of rapid reproduction." 



I also quote a valuable report on it from the United States, of which 

 country it is also a native : — 



" Irrigated but uncultivated fields usually produce an abundant crop 

 of the above grass each season. After the corn is ' laid by/ or during 

 what little rainy weather we have in the summer, this grass appears 

 in the cornfields, along the ditch-banks and in the fence-rows, and 

 makes a very rapid growth during the hot days of August and 

 September. It occasionally does considerable damage as a weed in 

 the Alfalfa (Lucerne) fields. 



