146 



to TrirapMsj a view I should adopt in this Manual were it not for the 

 convenience of as close adherence as possible to the nomenclature of 

 the Flora Australiensis. 



Botanical description (B. Fl. vii, 605). An erect glabrous grass of 

 2 or 3 feet. 



Leaves narrow, flat, or convolute. 



Panicle very loose, with long capillary branches, bearing each one to three large flat 



spikelets on capillary pedicels, at first erect, at length pendulous. 

 Spikelets ten- to fourteen-flowered, f to 1 inch long, the rhachis with a tuft of short 



hairs under each flowering glume. 

 Outer empty glumes narrow, acute, keeled, with or without a faint nerve on each 



side. 

 Flowering glumes distant from each other, about four lines long, rigid with five very 



prominent nerves of which the three principal ones produced into short terminal 



points or teeth, the central one rather the largest. 



Value as a fodder. — Unknown ; not likely to be important, on 

 account of its rarity. It may also be mentioned that its affinities are 

 with two genera not distinguished for yielding nutritious grasses. 



Habitat and range. — Confined to New South Wales, and only 

 recorded from the Blue Mountains. It is one of the rarest of our 

 grasses. 



Reference to Plate.— a. One of the flat spikelets enlarged and opened out. B.C. Two 

 pairs of glumes, showing a tuft of short hairs under each flowering glume, d. End of a 

 flowering glume, with its five prominent nerves, three of which are produced into short 

 terminal points. 



70. TRIODIA. 



Sinhelets several-flowered, paniculate, the rhachis articulate above 

 the outer glumes and between the flowering ones, hairy round them 

 or glabrous. 



Glumes unawned, two outer empty ones acute, keeled, glabrous or 

 the keel scabrous-ciliate. 



Flowering glumes usually shorter, unawned, the lower part rounded 

 on the back, more or less three-nerved at first, often hardened and 

 nerveless in fruit, with three terminal one- or three-nerved lobes or 

 teeth. 



Palea about as long as the entire part of the glume, with two 

 prominent nerves. Ovary glabrous. 



Styles very short, distinct. 



Grain somewhat dorsally compressed, enclosed in the glume and 

 palea, free from them. 



Leaves very pungent, the sheaths usually viscid ; flowering glumes 



silky-ciliate, divided nearly to the middle into three lobes. 



Panicle loose and spreading ; spikelets dark, \ inch long, eight- to 



twelve-flowered 1. T. Mitchelli 



Leaves very pungent, the sheaths not viscid ; flowering glumes silky- 

 villous at the base, with three sets of nerves each, leading to 

 three small obtuse teeth 4. T. irritans 



1. Triodia Mitchelli, Benth. 



Botanical name. — Triodia, Greek ; treis, three ; odous odontos, a 

 tooth; the flowering glumes having three terminal lobes or teeth; 

 Mitchelli, in honour of Sir Thomas Mitchell, ante p. 49. 



