95 



but it is said that cattle are so partial to it that they often lick the 

 broken pieces off the ground." Information in regard to New South 

 Wales experience with this grass, and in regard to its distribution, 

 would be very acceptable. 



Habitat and range. — Found in all the colonies except Tasmania and 

 Victoria. It is suitable for hot districts, occurring only in the dry 

 interior. 



34. APLUDA. 



Spikelets with one fertile flower, and a male one below it, sessile 

 between two flattened pedicels, bearing each a rudimentary or barren 

 spikelet, the whole embraced by a sheathing bract, the bracts clustered 

 on the branches of a leafy panicle. 



Outer glume of the sessile spikelet concave, striate, awnless ; second 

 glume acute, awnless, thin but stiff ; third, very thin and hyaline ; 

 fourth or terminal glume, very thin and hyaline, entire or bifid at the 

 top, awnless, or with a slender twisted terminal awn. 



Palea very thin, or none. 



Styles distinct. 



Grain enclosed in the outer glumes, free from them. 



1. Apluda mutica, Linn. 



Botanical name. — Apluda, Greek for chaff, the inflorescence resem- 

 bling' chaff in appearance ; mutica, Latin, blunt, perhaps, in allusion 

 to the outer glume. 



Synonym. — All species of Apluda are reduced by Hackel to forms 

 of A. varia, Hackel. 



Wliere figured. — Duthie (sect, figure). 

 Botanical description (B. Fl. vii, 544). — 

 Stem creeping or climbing, several feet long, with erect^branching flowering shoots. 

 Leaves long, usually glabrous. 

 Panicle loose and leafy, 1 to 2 feet long. 

 Bracts subtending the spikelets 3 to 4 lines long, very concave, striate, with short, 



sometimes awn-like points, in clusters of five or six. 

 Sessile spikelet shorter than the bract. 

 Pedicellate sjjikelets either reduced to a rudimentary glume or more developed and 



protruding beyond the bract. 

 Aiuns of the terminal glume very minute or entirely deficient. 



Value as a fodder. — So little is known of the economic value of this 

 Apluda that the following note on an allied species (A. aristata)* is 

 interesting : — " In hedges and bushes it usually assumes a climbing 

 habit. In forest land it often constitutes a large portion of the 

 undergrowth. It is considered to be a fairly good fodder grass, and 

 is readily eaten by cattle when young." (Duthie.) 



Habitat and range. — Found in New South Wales and Queensland. 

 In our Colony found only in tbe interior, but rare, and worthy of the 

 best attention of collectors. Found also in Asia, Africa, and the 

 Pacific Islands. 



* Really a form of the same species, according to Hackel. 



