258 THE TASMANIAN FLOEA. 



Z. PUNGENS, Willd. A small maritime plant, creeping in the sand. Leaves 

 rather narrow, hard, pungent. Flowering stem a few inches high. Inflorescence 

 about 1 inch long. Spikelets about 2 lines long. Outer glume completely- 

 enclosing the flower, polished. 



Islands of Bass Straits. Extending through Eastern Australia and Asia. 



5. HEMARTHRIA. 



Spikelets in pairs ; one containing a single terminal flower and 3 outer empty 

 glumes, the lowest largest, the third and flowering glume and pale all small and 

 hyaline ; the second spikelet on a flat pedicel, and generally consisting of empty 

 glumes, but sometimes with a rudimentary or perfect flower. Inflorescence 

 linear. 



H. UNCINATA, R. Br. Base creeping ; stems 6 inches to 1 foot, simple, or 

 branched at the base. Leaves narrow, flat, about 4-6 inches long, distichous. 

 Spike slightly compressed, 2-4 inches long. Spikelets about 3 lines long, the 

 sessile one developing seed, and the second glume adnate to the rhachis, and 

 bearing a rudimentary hook. The normally pedunculate flower with its peduncle 

 adnate to the rhachis, outer glume acute, second hooked, stamens and pistils 

 a-pparently perfect. 



A variable grass. Possibly not distinct from H. compressa, R. Br. The 

 common Tasmanian form from which I have written the above 

 description differs from the type in the second glume of the sessile 

 spikelet being attached along its back to the rhachis, in the second 

 spikelet being really sessile and flower-bearing, and in the second glume 

 being hooked instead of the first. • The typical plant occurs throughout 

 Australia, and is closely allied to Asian and South European forms. 

 Often included in Rottboellia. 



6. IMPERATA. 



Spikelet 1-2-flowered. Grlumes 4, the outer one largest ; pale present ; mostly 

 clothed with long hairs, and partly sessile and partly pedunculate, in a compound, 

 rather compact, spike-like panicle. 



I. AKUNDiNACEA, Cyr. An erect reed-like grass, 2-3 feet high. Leaves 

 narrow, about as long as the stem. Inflorescence dense, about 6 inches long. 

 Spikelets about 2 lines long, hidden by hairs. 



Swanport. Widely distributed from Australia to Europe. 



7. ANTHISTIRIA. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, unisexual, clustered. Inflorescence of 1 female flower 

 with 4 male spikelets in a whorl beneath, and 1 or 2 above it, some of them 

 often rudimentary. Glumes in the rudimentary -flowered spikelets 2, in the 

 males 3, in the females 4, the fourth or flowering glume very narrow and 

 elongated into a stiff awn, often 1 inch long, each cluster subtended by a short 

 leaf-like bract. 



A. ciLiATA, Linn. Habit tufted or spreading. Leaves flat, narrow. Flowering 

 stems usually 1 foot high. Inflorescence in rather dense flat panicles, about 1^ 

 inch long. Spikelets about f inch long. Themeda forskalii, Hack. 



Very common ; also throughout Australia, and spreading to Asia and Africa. 



8. POLYPOGON. 

 Spikelets 1-flowered, small. Flowering glume short, with a slender, thread- 

 like, dorsal awn, pale short, and 2 outer empty glumes, each with a slender 

 thread-like awn. Inflorescence a branched, rather dense, panicle. 



