60 



Glumes four, as in the male, the third with a more or less developed 

 palea, and sometimes three stamens or staminodes. 



Palea in the fourth glume perfect. 



Stamens three, often imperfect. 



Styles two, distinct with long shortly-plumose stigmas. 



Grain enclosed in the hardened glume and palea and free from them. 

 Spreading or creeping hard branching grasses, the flowering branches 

 subtended by leafy or lanceolate and concave bracts. 



Heads of spikelets several inches in diameter ; male spikelets in 

 spikes of 1 to 1^ inches ; females at the base of rigid rhachises 

 of 3 to 4 inches ; plant silky, pubescent, or villous ... ... 1. S. hirsutus. 



Heads of spikelets not above 1 inch diameter ; male spikelets 

 solitary or clustered within small bracts ; females within 

 broad bracts, the rhachis shorter than the spikelet, and some- 

 times minute or obsolete ... ... ... ... ... ... 3. S. paradoxus. 



1. Spinifex hirsutus, Labill. 



Botanical name. — Spinifex, from the Latin, spina a thorn or 

 prickle, in allusion to the spinous rhachis of the male spikelets ; 

 hirsutus, hairy, in allusion to the general appearance of the plant. 



Vernacular names. — " Spiny Rolling Grass " appears to be, perhaps, 

 the best name for this grass, but it is by no means in universal use, 

 many people simply calling it " Sandstay " or " Sea-coast Grass. " It 

 is sometimes called " Porcupine Grass " in Tasmania. It is not to be 

 confused with the so-called " Spinif exes " of the. interior, which are 

 botanically Triodia. They are far more prickly, and hence deserve 

 the name of Spinifex better than the plants included in that genus. 

 The genera Triodia and Spinifex are not closely related to each 

 other. 



Where figured. — Labillardiere, Buchanan, Hackel, Agricultural 

 Gazette. ■ 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii., 503). — 



Stem stout, creeping in the sand, forming large tufts. 



Leaves often above 1 foot long with involute margins, clothed, as well as the whole 

 plant, with silky or woolly hairs. 



Male plant : Spikes sessile or pedunculate, few or many in a terminal head or 

 umbel, and often a cluster of two or three spikes, or a single spike lower down 

 on the stem ; each spike 1 to 1^ inches long ; the rhachis produced into a point 

 usually exceeding the spikelets, and sometimes very long. 



Bracts under the spikes or peduncles, lanceolate, acuminate, concave. 



Spikelets sessile in the spike or scarcely pedicellate, 5 to 6 lines long. 



Glumes membranous, hairy, the empty ones five or seven nerved, usually as long 

 as or longer than the flowering ones. 



Fertile plant : Spikelets very numerous, in a large dense globular head, each one 

 solitary at the base of a spine-like rhachis of 4 inches or more, subtended by a 

 much shorter linear-lanceolate bract, the spikelet 6 to 7 lines long, acute or 

 acuminate. 



Glumes all nearly similar, with seven or more nerves, the two outer ones rather 

 the largest, with more nerves than the others. A palea and sometimes three 

 stamens in the axil of the third, and an ovary and three stamens or staminodes in 

 the terminal one. 



Value as a fodder. — Yery small. 



Other uses. — Its only use, though that is a great one, is as a sand- 

 stay. The "Marram Grass" (Psamma arenaria, R. et. S. — a European 



