154 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 614). — 

 Stems erect, slender but rigid, 1 to 2 feet high. 

 Leaves narrow with subulate points or almost entirely flat in the larger specimens, 



glabrous. 

 Spikes four to six, dense, 1 to 1^ inches long. 

 SpiheUts sessile, 3 to 4 lines long. 

 Lowest glume narrow, hyaline, almost obtuse, scarcely keeled, about 2 lines long, 



the second rather longer, with a more prominent keel. 

 Flowering glume raised on a hairy rhachis of about 1 line, rather above 1 line 



long, very broad and concave, prominently three-nerved, ciliate with long hairs 



at the end, with a fine awn of 2 to 3 lines. 

 Terminal empty glumes several (four to seven), the lowest two broader than the 



flowering one, five- to seven-nerved at the base, hyaline and not ciliate, very 



spreading and at length rigidly scarious ; the upper ones gradually smaller 



sessile and not exceeding the outer ones. 



Value as a fodder. — A beautiful grass, but perhaps of little value 

 for pasture; worthy" of garden cultivation. It may, however, prove 

 to be of more value to the pastoralist when we know more about it. 



Habitat and range. — Found in Western and South Australia, also 

 in New South Wales and Queensland. In our own Colony it has only 

 been recorded from Hungerford, and may be looked for in other 

 localities in the north-west of the Colony. 



74. ELEUSINE. 



Spikelets several-flowered, flat, imbricate in two rows along one 

 side of the digitate or scattered branches of a simple panicle, the 

 rhachis of the spikelet articulate above the outer glumes. 



Glumes spreading, keeled and complicate, thin, but rigid, the two 

 outer empty ones usually shorter, unequal, obtuse, acute or tapering 

 to a short point. 



Flowering glumes obtuse or less pointed, the terminal one usually 

 empty or rudimentary. 



Talea folded. 



Styles short, distinct. 



Seed rugose within a loose membranous pericarp, which either 

 persists round the ripe seed or breaks up and falls away or otherwise 

 disappears as the ovary enlarges. 



Spikes digitate, short. Spikelets very closely packed, the glumes 

 very pointed, the second outer one almost awned. Pericarp 

 evanescent 1. E '. cegyptiaca. 



Spikes digitate, or with one lower down, 2 to 3 inches long. 



Glumes obtuse. Pericarp persistent ... ... ... ... 2. E. indica. 



1. Eleusine aegyptiaca, Pers. 



Botanical name. — Eleusine, Latin eleusinius, of or belonging to 

 Ceres, the goddess of corn and tillage; segyptiaca, Egyptian. 



Synonym. — JE. cruciata, Lam. ; Dactyloctenium segyptiacum, Willd. 



Vernacular names. — " Small Crow-foot Grass" ; " Egyptian Finger- 

 grass." 



Where figured. — Duthie, Kearney, Agricultural Gazette. 



