112 



Botanical description (B. FL, vii, 565). 



Stems from a horizontal rhizome erect andj branching, rigid though rather slender, 



2 to 3 feet high. 

 Leaves narrow, mostly erect, convolute when dry, glabrous. 

 Panicle very loose, 6 to 8 inches long, at length broadly spreading, the rhachis and 



long filiform branches elegantly plumose, with fine spreading hairs. 

 Outer glumes 4 to 6 lines long, equal or the lower much shorter, acutely acuminate. 

 Flowering glume shorter, on a short hairy stipes, but glabrous, the involute margins 



shortly hyaline at the end, and produced into a very short obtuse lobe on each 



side of the awn. 

 Awn 1 to 1| inches long, or sometimes even longer. 

 Palea less than one-third as long as the glume. 



Value as a fodder. — Probably very little. 



Other uses. — This grass is often cultivated for ornamental purposes. 

 The elegantly plumose branches of the panicle render it a charming 

 object. 



Habitat and range. — Found in all the Colonies except Tasmania. In 

 our own colony it occurs from the tableland to the interior. 



la. Stipa Tuckeri, F.v.M. 



Botanical name. — Tuckeri, in honour of G. A. Tucker, who first 

 sent the grass to Baron von Mueller. 



Botanical description (Fragmenta xi, 129). — Described as a small 

 grass, but according to specimens in the herbarium, Botanic Gardens, 

 Sydney, scarcely less than 2 feet high. 



Leaves flat, with the stalks, sheaths, and nodes velvety-pubescent. 



Spikelets small. 



Panicles — the branches much spreading, soft, covered with short soft hairs " whitish 



and patent" (F.v.M.). 

 Outer glumes short. 

 Flowering glume glabrous. 

 Awns about 1 to 1^ inches long. 



[See also Key to System of Victorian Plants, p. 491.] 



Value as a fodder. — Unknown. 



Habitat and range. — In our own Colony it has been recorded from 

 the Lachlan and Darling Rivers and Liverpool Plains. Further search 

 may greatly augment this list. It also occurs in Victoria and South 

 Australia. 



2. Stipa micrantha, Cav. 



Botanical name. — Micrantha, from the Greek, micros, small, anthon 

 a flower, in reference to the small spikelets. 



Synonym. — Stipa verticillata, Nees, according to Bentham. (See 

 Dichelachne sciurea.) 



Vernacular name. — " Bamboo-grass." 

 Botanical description (B. FL, vii, 566) : — 

 Stems several feet high, not stout but rigid, sometimes spreading or scrambling with 



the branches in dense clusters, sometimes long and little branched. 

 Leaves very slender, the sheaths often long and loose, glabrous. 

 Panicle loose, but often narrow, from under 6 inches to above 1 foot long, with very 



numerous capillary glabrous branches. 

 Spikelets the smallest in the genus, pedicellate on the ultimate branches. 

 Outer glumes linear, very thin, nearly equal, scarcely 1 £ lines long. 

 Flowering glume shorter, nearly glabrous, on a very short and ciliate stipes, entire 



at the top, the awn very slender, about \ inch long. 

 Palea not above half the length of the glume. 



