100 



43. TETRARRHENA. 



Spihelets one-flowered, sessile or very shortly pedicellate in a simple 

 spike or in a scarcely branched spike-like panicle"; the rhachis of the 

 spikelet articulate above the two outer glumes. 



Glumes six, two outer small and persistent, the third various, the 

 fourth usually the largest and rigid, the fifth similar but usually 

 smaller, the sixth narrower but keeled like them, none of them awned. 



Flower terminal. 



No palea. 



Lodicules large, very thin. 



Stamens four. 



Styles short, distinct. 



Grain enclosed in the larger glumes, but free from them. 



2. Tetrarrhena juncea, R.Br. 



Botanical name. — Tetrarrhena — tetra, Greek for four ; arrhen, man 

 (stamen), the flowers having four stamens; juncea — Latin, rush-like. 

 Synonym. — Ehrharta juncea, Spreng., in F.v.M. Census. 

 Vernacular name. — " Wire-grass. " 

 Where figured. — Hooker, Fl. Tasmania. 

 Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 554). 



Stems either long, slender, and slightly branched, or more branched and entangled, 

 scrambling over bushes to the height of 8 to 12 feet. (F. Mueller.) 



Leaves narrow, glabrous or pubescent, with short rigid hairs. 



Spike or raceme simple, 1 to 2 inches long, the rhachis flexuose. 



Spihelets distant, sessile or nearly so, 2 to 2^ lines long. Two outer glumes short 

 but unequal, obtuse, faintly-nerved, third glume nearly equal to the fourth and 

 fifth, all three obtuse, prominently three- or five-nerved, sixth glume enclosing 

 the flower, very narrow and hyaline. 



Value as a fodder. — It must be very little, perhaps affording a bite 

 for stock, with other grasses, in the spring. Its tough stems and 

 straggling habit would preclude stock walking amongst it even if it 

 were otherwise desirable. It is a hindrance to travellers in the dis- 

 tricts in which it grows. Stirling, speaking of the Australian Alps, 

 says that even the dreaded thorns and the " Climbing Lawyer" (Smilax 

 australis) are less objectionable than the finely serrated stems and 

 leaves of this grass. 



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

 Wales. In our Colony, from the Blue Mountains, in a southerly 

 direction, to Victoria. 



44. ALOPECURUS. 



Spikelets one-flowered, flat, densely crowed into a cylindrical spike 

 or spike-like panicle. 



Glumes three, two outer complicate, keeled, acute, but not awned, 

 third under the flower shorter, keeled, with a short slender dorsal awn. 



