123 



Panicle very loose. Awn very small and straight above the middle 

 of the flowering glume or reduced to a small point near 

 the summit ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 12. D. scabra. 



Panicle dense and spikelike. Leaves broad. Awn small and 



straight near the summit of the flowering glume ... ... 13. D. nivalis. 



Flowering glume twice as long as the truncate outer ones. Spikelets 

 very small in a loose panicle, awnless, or with a minute 

 point on the flowering glume. Outer glumes not keeled, 

 truncate. Stems 1 to \\ feet... ... ... ... 15. D. breviglumis. 



2. Deyeuxia Forsteri, Kuntli. 



Botanical name. — Deyeuxia, in honour of Deyeux; Forsteri, in honour 

 of the Forsters; Johan Reinhold and George, the latter of whom accom- 

 panied Captain Cook as botanist during his second voyage of circum- 

 navigation. 



Synonym. — Agrostis Solandri, F.v.M. in Census; A. semula, E. Br. 



Vernacular names. — " Toothed Bent-grass " ; the " Winter-grass " 

 of Bacchus. 



Where figured. — Buchanan (as A. semula), Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B.FL, vii, 579). — A common grass, very 

 variable in habit, usually erect or decumbent; 1 to 2 feet high or rather 

 more, with flat, rather flaccid leaves, but sometimes smaller, with 

 ■convolute or fine, almost filiform, leaves. 



Panicles usually very loose and spreading when fully out, 6 inches to 1 foot long, 

 with long capillary divided branches in distant whorls or clusters. 



Spikelets very numerous. 



Outer glumes narrow, very pointed, 1 to 1^ lines long, or in some varieties, nearly 

 2 lines. 



Flowering glume about half as long, thin and almost hyaline, broad, enveloping the 

 flower, truncate, or very shortly and unecrually two- or four-toothed, sprinkled 

 or densely covered with hairs on the back, rarely almost glabrous, surrounded 

 by the hairs of the rhachis, with a fine twisted awn attached about the middle 

 of the back. 



Palea very narrow. 



Rhachis produced into a bristle, usually very short and ciliate with a few long hairs. 



Botanical notes. — Normally with a very hairy flowering glume. Var. 

 Iseviglumis with flowering glume nearly glabrous, except marginal cilia. 

 Lake George, N.S.W., and in Victoria. 



Value as a fodder. — A very abundant grass in the cooler parts of 

 the year, disappearing during the hot summer months. It produces 

 large quantities of excellent pasture. As the seed ripens the panicles 

 break off the stalk and blow about, frequently accumulating in large 

 •quantities against obstacles. Here follow a Victorian and a New 

 Zealand account of the grass : — 



" It is the first grass to spring up after summer rains, and keeps 

 up a supply of nutritive herbage. During winter it seeds freely. I 

 consider it a useful winter grass. When summer comes it dries up, 

 making room for other sorts."" (Bacchus.) 



" Often forming a prominent part of the pasture on dry, stony, or 

 sandy soils. It is valuable as a sheep-grass in such places, probably 

 proving perennial when prevented by grazing from ripening its seed, 

 the permanence of such grasses often depending on their capability to 

 stole or form off-sets or branches at the roots before flowering and 



