Xerochloa.] CLIII. GBAMINEJ3. 1843 



1. X. imberbis (glume not bearded), 7i. Br. Prod. 197 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 vii. 501. Very closely allied to A', barbata, with a similar habit and foliage. The 

 flowering bracts rather narrower and more distant, more frequently 

 terminating in a point or lamina. Spikes branched, with 5 or 6 spikelets on 

 •each branch, but the whole not much exceeding the outer bract. Glumes and 

 pales3 as in A', barhata, except that they are all glabrous. — F. v. M. Fragm. viii. 

 117. 



Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, 11. Brown. 



2. X. barbata (bearded), R. Br. Prod. 197 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 501- 

 Stems from a branching base erect, usually about 1 to 2ft. high. Leaves in the 

 lower part of the plant narrow, almost terete, erect and rigid. Inflorescence 

 •occupying the upper part of the plant. Primary bracts rather distant along the 

 simple general rbachis, rather broad and sheathing, about Jin. long, erect, 

 cartilaginous, produced into a very short obtuse or truncate erect lamina, each 

 enclosing a simple or slightly branched spike of few spikelets often scarcely 

 ■exceeding the outer bract, each spikelet on a short thick pedicel enclosed in a 

 many-nerved glume-like bract and occasionally interspersed with smaller empty 

 bracts. Spikelets 2| to 3 lines long; the lower ones glabrous except a few long 

 •cilia on the margin o' the 2nd glume and the nerves of the palea of the 3rd, the 

 lowest spikelet sometimes barren. In the upper spikelet the pedicel, the nerves" 

 ■of the palea of the male flower and the margins of the 2nd glume usually densely 

 ■ciliate or bearded. Grain much shorter than the enveloping palea. — F. v. M. 

 Fragm. viii. 117. 



Hab. : Islands of tlie Gulf of Carpentaria, R. Brown ; Albert River, Henne. 



17. -STENOTAPHRUM, Trin. 

 (Alluding to the narrow trench in which the spikelets are embedded.) 

 (Diastemanthe, Steud.) 

 Spikelets with 1 terminal hermaphrodite flower and a male or imperfect one 

 below it, usually 2 to 4 together in very short spikes embedded in the alternate 

 notches of the broad rhachis of a spikelike panicle, the rhachis of the partial spike 

 usually produced into a short point beyond the insertion of the spikelets, and the 

 common rhachis often disarticulating transversely between the notches when old. 

 •Glumes 4, the lowest einpty and very small, the 2nd empty and the largest, 

 membranous but rigid, 3 or 5-nerved, the 3rd and 4th flowering, rather smaller, 

 with the nerves less prominent and of a somewhat firmer texture. Palea witliin 

 both glumes of a similar consistence. Styles distinct, with long plumose stigmas.' 

 ■Grain enclosed in the rather rigid but thin palea and flowering glume but free 

 from them. 



A small genus dispersed over the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the New and the Old 

 World. 



1. S. americanum (of America), Schrank ; Eunth, Enum. i. 188; Benth. 

 Fl. Austr. vii. 500. Buflalo Grass. A glabrous rather coarse grass creeping and 

 rooting at the base, ascending to about 1ft., the stems somewhat flattened. 

 Leaves obtuse, flat or involute, the sheaths usually broad and flat, ciliate at the 

 ■orifice. Spikes solitary and terminal, 2in. long or more, the rhachis flat and 

 flexuose, 1 to 2 lines broad, readily disarticulating transversely between the 

 notches when old, though continuous when in flower. Spikelets 2 or 

 3 together on very short flat or angular branches in the alternate notches of the 

 ■common rhachis, the partial rhachis continued beyond the insertion of the 

 uppermost spikelet, but not usually exceeding it, the spikelets sessile, oval-oblong, 

 •acute or acuminate, 2 to 2^ lines long, all half immersed in the notches. — F. v. 



