67 



Second glume broad to above the middle, pubescent on the back, and densely fringed 

 on each side by long spreading hairs, the upper part narrow and glabrous, or 

 nearly so. 



Third glume shorter, thin, faintly nerved and not ciliate, either empty or enclosing 

 a small palea. 



Fruiting glume and palea thin and almost hyaline. 



Value as a fodder. — An excellent grass, nutritious and palatable to 

 stock. It grows under the shade of trees, and under the protection of 

 shrubs and stones. It withstands severe drought, keeping up a 

 growth when many other grasses are dried up. 



Habitat and range. — Found in South Australia, Victoria, New South 

 Wales and Queensland. An interior species. 



3. Neurachne Munroi, E.v.M. 



Botanical name. — Munroi, in honour of General William Munro, an 

 eminent British authority on grasses. 



Where figured. — Ic ones Plant arum, t. 1239. 

 Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 508). — 



Stems from a more or less woolly knotty base under 1 foot high. 



Leaves narrow, convolute, or subulate, ciliate at the nodes and ligula, otherwise 

 glabrous. 



Spike narrow-cylindrical, 1 to nearly 2 inches long. 



Rhachis pubescent. 



Spikelets 2J to 3 lines long, with a tuft of hairs at their base. 



Outer glume nearly as long as the spikelet, thin, glabrous, or with a few marginal 

 cilia. 



Second glume more rigid, acutely acuminate, with about seven very prominent 

 nerves, the marginal ones fringed in the lower half with long cilia. 



Third glume shorter, much thinner, glabrous, about five-nerved, with a small palea. 

 Fruiting glume and palea thin and hyaline, the palea larger than the glume. 



Value as a fodder. — A useful grass, believed to be nutritious, often 

 affording a bite to stock in sheltered situations amongst scrub. 



Habitat and range. — Found in South Australia, Victoria, and New 

 South Wales. An interior species, found frequently amongst mulga 

 scrub (Acacia aneura and allied species) . 



17. PEROTIS. 



Spikelets one-flowered, sessile, or shortly pedicellate along the 

 continuous rhachis of a loose simple spike or raceme. 



Glumes three, two outer empty ones linear, rigid, tapering into long 

 terminal straight awns, the lowest the longest. 



Terminal flowering glume much smaller, thin, and hyaline, the palea 

 still smaller. 



Styles very shortly united at the base, the plumose stigmas short. 



Chrain narrow, free, longer than the terminal glume, enclosed in the 

 two rigid outer ones. 



