^xonopus.] OLIII. GBAMINE^. 1837 



■at the base on the infcramarginal nerve ; 8rd glume more rigid, though thin, with 

 ■a small palea and sometimes with 3 stamens in the axil. Fruiting glume more 

 rigid, with a rather longer point, the palea also rigid, but the inflexed margins 

 thin with a distinct lobe at the base on each side. — Panicum seniialatum, R. Br. 

 in Fl. Austr. vii. 472 ; Maiden Gr. N.8.W.; UroMoa semialata, Kunth, Enum. 

 1. 74 ; CondocMoa semialata, Nees, in various catalogues, Benth. 



Hab.: Throughout Queensland. 



Dr. Lumholtz found this grass, in North Queensland, to furnish the principal food of white 

 cockatoos. An excellent pasture grass, producing a large amount of leafy bottom, although the 

 -hard cane-like stems are refused by stock. 



9. •TRICHOL.ffiNA, Sohrad. 

 (Clothed with hairs) 



Erect tufted annual or perennial grasses. Leaves narrow. Spikelets 1 to 

 -■2-flowered, articulate on their pedicels, paniculate, laterally compressed, clothed 

 with long silky hairs, callus stipite-form. Glumes 3 or 4, 1st if present very 

 small, often inserted much below the 3rd ; 2nd and Brd sub-equal, membranous, 

 broadly ovate, mucronate or awned, dorsally rounded ; Brd paleate, triandrous ; 

 4th very thin, shining, female or bisexual. Lodicules 2, minute, dolabriform. 

 -Grain loose within the glumes. 



Species chiefly South African. 



1. T. Teneriffae (of Tenerifife), Paiiat. in Webb and Berth. Phyt. Canar. iii. 

 425 ; Fl. Bal. i. 130 ; Hook. Fl. Brit. hid. vii. 65. Stems numerous from an 

 ■extending rhizome, geniculate slender and rigid. Leaves very slender, convolute, 

 rigid, glabrous, sheath hairy at the orifice ; ligula narrow and membranous. 

 Panicle 4 to Sin. long, open, the branches and pedicels capillary. Spikelets 

 «,bout 2 lines long, purplish, silky with spreading hairs ; 2nd and Brd glumes 

 ovate acute or mucronate, concave ; 4th articulate at the base, white or brown, 

 shining. — Panicum Teneriffa, R. Br. Prod. 189. 



Hab.: A North African species naturalised in many southern localities. Known in Queens- 

 land under the name of Bed Natal Grass, grows fast nearly throughout the year, but is not 

 -considered to stand close feeding. 



10. OPLISMENUS, Beauv. 



(Awned.) 



(Orthopogon, B. Br.) 



Spikelets with 1 terminal hermaphrodite flower and a rudimentary one below 



a, awned, clustered along the secund distant branches' of a simple panicle. 



<jlumes 4, the lowest empty one not much shorter than the others and with a 



longer awn, the flowering glume awnless and hardened with the palea round the 



grain as in Panicum. 



A small tropical and subtropical genus common to the New and the Old World, and very 

 •closely allied to some of the awned species of Panicum, to which several botanists would restore 

 it. The inflorescence, together with the greater development and long awn of the outer empty 

 glume, may however suffice to retain it as distinct, with the limits originally assigned to it by 

 Beauvois and by Brown. _ The Australian species are both of them of a very wide distribution. 

 —Benth. 



Lower branches of the panicle J to 2in. long 1. 0. eompositus. 



j.11 the branches of the panicle reduced to sessile clusters ....... 2. 0. setarius. 



1. O. eompositus (composite), Beauv. Arjrostorjr. 54 ; Benth. FL Austr. vii. 491. 

 Usually a weak grass softly pubescent or villous, but sometimes nearly glabrous. 

 .Stems decumbent or creeping and rooting at the base, ascending sometimes to 

 :above 1ft. Leaves from linear-lanceolate to ovate-lonceolate, 4 to 5in. long in 

 :the largfer specimens, but more frequently under 2in. Panicle slender consisting 



