Onjia.] OLIII. GEAMINE^. 1845 



upper ones very prominently nerved, the keels usually ciliate, the outer one 

 with 1 nerve on each side besides the nerve-like margin, closely embracing 

 and almost connate with the inner glume, which is as long but narrower 

 with only 1 nerve on each side near the thin margin, both glumes either 

 shortly awned or in some cultivated varieties awnless or the outer ore with a 

 straight awn of ^ to 8in., and the inner with only a short point. — P. v. M. 

 Fragm. viii. 115 ; Doll, in Mart. PI. Bras. Gram. t. 1. 



Hab.: Common in the Gulf country swamps. The Queensland form is the normal 

 form of the Eioe of oommeroe. Stookholders consider it an excellent fodder. There are probably 

 two forms indigenous for I have received specimens with a very dark inflorescence and some of 

 a straw-colour, 



20. LEERSIA, Swartz. 



(After J. D. Leers.) 



(Asprella, Rcem. and SchuU.) 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, flat, articulate on short pedicels along the filiform 



branches of a terminal panicle. Glumes 2, complicate and keeled, the outer one 



the largest. No 2-nerved palea. Stamens 6 or in species not Australian 3 or 



fewer. Styles short, distinct. Grain enclosed in the slightly hardened glumes, 



free from them. 



A small genus, spread over the tropical and temperate regions of the globe, the only Australian 

 spscies common to the New and the Old World. 



1. Ii. hexandra (6 stamens), Swartz.; Kunth, Enum. i. 6; Benth. If I. 

 Austr. vii, 549. Bice Grass. An erect though weak glab'rous grass, attaining 

 several feet, often rooting in the mud at the lower nodes. Leaves rather narrow, 

 flat when fresh, mostly erect. Panicle oblong, 2 to 4in. long, with erect or 

 slightly spreading filiform flexuose branches. Spikelets narrow-ovate, about 

 1 J line long. Glumes membranous, acute, the outer one with a prominent 

 nerve on each side besides the marginal one ; the inner glume nearly as long, but 

 narrower, with only 1 nerve on each side near the margin. Stamens 6. — Bail. 

 111. Mono. Gr. Ql. i. ; L. australis, R. Br. Prod. 210 ; Asprella australis, Rcem. 

 and Schult. Syst. ii. 267 ; L. mex'wana, Kunth, Rev. Gram. t. 1. 



Hab.: Keppel Bay, U. Bcoiwre ; Port Curtis, M'Gillivray; Eockhampton, Thozet, O'Shanesif; 

 Brisbane River, Moreton Bay, F. v. Mueller, Leiclihardt and others. 



The inflorescence of this grass is often infested with the blight-fungus Thecaphora inquinans, 

 B. and Br , and the leaves with Puccinia graminis, Pers. 



21. LEPTASPIS, R. Br. 



(Slender shielded.) 



Spikelets unisexual, monoecious, 1-flowered, pedicellate in a loose terminal 

 panicle. Glumes 3, the 2 outer empty ones small, broad ; 3rd or flowering 

 plume larger, membranous, 5 or 7-herved, ovoid or globular, open down the 

 inner side in the males, closed in the females except a small terminal but 

 excentrical orifice. Palea small, lanceolate, flat, 2-nerved. No lodicules. 

 Stamens in the males 6 without any rudimentary ovary. No staminodia in the 

 females. Style entire to the orifice of the glume with 3 exserted feathery stigmas. 

 Grain enclosed in the utricular enlarged glume. 

 A small genus extending over tropical Asia and Africa, the only Australian species endemic. 



1. Ii. Banksii (after Sir Joseph Banks), B. Br. Prod. 211 ; Benth. tl. 

 Austr. vii. 548. Stems from a horizontal or shortly creeping rhizome IJ to 2ft. 

 high, leafy only in the lower part. Leaves petiolate above the long narrow sheaths, 

 lanceolate, flat, acute, 4 to Sin. long and \ to lin. broad, glabrous or sprinkled 

 with numerous hairs. Panicle very loose, | to 1ft. long, the, filiform branches 



|"4BT VI. I, 



