193 



Habitat and range. — It is confined to New South Wales, Victoria, 

 and Tasmania. In New South Wales it is common in many parts of 

 the Monaro, chiefly on black soil flats, often in swampy land. It 

 ascends to high altitudes (I have it from 5,000 to 6,000 feet on Mount 

 Kosciusko). In Victoria it is confined to Northern Gippsland, in 

 situations similar to those it frequents over the border of the northern 

 colony. In Tasmania it is found in the Hampshire Hills, Thomas 

 Plains, and Recherche Bay. 



Reference to Plate : — a, spikelet ; b, empty glume ; c, back and front views of seed j 

 all enlarged. 



101. LEPTUKUS. 



Spikelets one-flowered, or in a species not Australian two-flowered, 

 sessile, and half embedded in the alternate notches of a more or less 

 articulate simple spike. 



Outer empty glumes two, one slightly overlapping the other on one 

 side, or one only, appressed and covering the cavity, rigid and nerved. 



Flowering glume and palea shorter, thin, and hyaline, embedded in 

 the cavity, the axis of the spikelet produced behind the palea into 

 a minute point, or bearing a small terminal empty glume. 



Styles short. 



Grain free from the glume. 



Annuals. — Outer glumes with about five prominent nerves. Axis of 

 the spikelet produced into a minute point or bristle. 

 Outer glumes of the lateral spikelets two ... ... ... ... 1. L. incurvatus* 



Outer glume of the lateral spikelets only one ... ... ... 2. L. cylindricus. 



1. Lep turns incur vatixs, Trin. 



Botanical name. — Lepturus — Greek, leptos, slender ; our a, a tail, in 

 allusion to the pointed rhachis ; incurvatus-. — Latin, crooked or bowed, 

 in allusion to the spikes. 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 668). — A tufted or branching 

 annual of 3 inches to 1 foot, or rarely more, slender in the Australian 

 specimens with very narrow leaves. 



Spikes nearly cylindrical, slender, 2 to 6 inches long, straight or curved. 



Outer glumes two, rigid, acute, usually five-nerved, about 3 lines long, placed in the 



lateral spikelets apparently side by side outside the rest of the spikelet, but 



one slightly overlapping. the other at the base. 

 Flowering glume and flower embedded in the cavity of the rhachis of the spike, the 



rhachis of the spikelet slightly produced behind the palea into a minute point 



sometimes almost obsolete. In the terminal spikelet the two outer glumes are 



normally exposed to each other. 



Value as a fodder.— Not known, but probably small. 



Habitat and range.- — Pound in South Australia, Victoria, and New 

 South Wales. In the last Colony, in salt-marshes in the coast districts 

 south from Parramatta to Victoria. Found also in the Mediterranean 

 region ; also in India and New Zealand. 



