50 



Spikelets all on slender pedicels, narrow, acute, 1^ to 1^ lines long, usually of a pale 

 straw colour. 



Outer glume very short, broad and truncate, thin and nerveless. 



Second and third glumes nearly equal, acute, thinly membranous, five or seven- 

 nerved, the third, with a palea from one-quarter or one-third its length, but no 

 stamens. 



Fruiting glume very smooth and shining. 



Value as a fodder. — It affords a bulky, palatable, and nutritious 

 fodder. It is worthy of extensive cultivation, particularly in the 

 western country — an operation which is rendered the easier because 

 it yields abundance of seed. 



Other uses. — The aborigines convert the very small millet-like grains 

 into cakes, which are really nutritious. 



Alluding to this grass, Sir Thomas Mitchell (Three Expeditions, pp. 

 237 and 290), says: — "In the neighbourhood of our camp the grass 

 had been pulled to a very great extent, and piled in hay-ricks, so that 

 the aspect of the desert was softened into the agreeable semblance of 

 a hay-field. The grass had evidently been thus laid up by the natives, 

 but for what purpose we could not imagine. At first I thought the 

 heaps were only remains of encampments, as the aborigines sometimes 

 sleep on a little dry grass, but when we found the ricks, or hay-cocks, 

 extending for miles, we were quite at a loss to understand why they 

 had been made. All the grass was of one kind, and not a spike of it 

 was left in the soil, over the whole of the ground. . . . We were 

 still at a loss to know for what purpose the heaps of one particular 

 kind of grass had been pulled, and so laid up hereabouts. Whether 

 it was accumulated by the natives to allure birds, or by rats, as their 

 holes were seen beneath, we were puzzled to determine. The grass 

 was beautifully green beneath the heaps, and full of seeds, and our 

 cattle were very fond of this hay." 



Mr. E. Palmer, in describing the food-stuffs of the Cloncurry 

 (Queensland) aborigines, thus refers to this grass : — u Has a fine 

 yellow seed like lucerne seed, which is gathered when the seed is just 

 opened from the sheath. It is winnowed and ground between two 

 stones, mixed with water into a kind of paste or thick gruel, and 

 poured into the hot ashes, making a sort of damp bread, very nourish- 

 ing and satisfying." 



Habitat and range. — A moisture-loving species, found in all the 

 colonies except Tasmania. It is diffused throughout the Colony, but 

 is most plentiful in the western districts. It has been doubtfully 

 recorded also from Asia. 



53. Panicum trachyrkachis, Benth. 



Botanical name. — Tr achy rhachis, from two Greek words — trachys, 

 rough or harsh, and rhachis, the backbone (as applied to animals), 

 the rhachis (in botany) or axis supporting a flowering stem. In this 

 grass the rhachis is rough, and so are the branches and the panicle. 



Vernacular name. — " Oo-kin " of the aborigines of the Mitchell 

 River, Norther n Queensland. 



Where figured. — Agricultural Gazette. 



