Polytoca.] OLIII. GRAMINE^. 1849 



1. P. barbata (bearded), Stapf. in HojIc. Fl. Brit. hid. vii. 102. An erect 

 stout branching grass, attaining several feet, but said to be annual. Leaves flat, 

 broad or narrow, very scabrous, the sheaths usually sprinkled with rigid spread- 

 ing hairs. Nodes glabrous or bearded. Peduncles slender but rigid, usually 

 several in the upper axils, very unequal in length but the longest shorter than 

 the leaf, each bearing a broadly lanceolate acuminate bract at the base of the 

 spike, usually about lin. long, at first close and sheathing but at length opening 

 out. Spike scarcely exceeding the bract. Female spikelet solitary at the base, 

 ovoid-oblong, nearly 4 lines long; males 6 to 10 in pairs, 4 to 5 lines long, 

 narrow, rather acute. Rhachis of the spike articulate above and below the 

 female spikelets, the peduncle dilated and cup-shaped under it. — Coix barbata, 

 Roxb. Hort. Beng. 66 and Fl. Ind. iii. 569 ; Chionachne barbata, R. Br. ; Benth. 

 Fl. Austr. vii. 515. 



Hab.: Burdekin Biver, Bowman ; Cardwell district, Baii«j/. 



Widely spread over East Inliaand originally described as Goix arundinacea, Willd. Spec. 

 PI. iv. 203. A name preoccupied by Lamarck. 



2. P. cyathopofla (bract cup-shapad), Bail. An erect grass of several feet, 

 less branched than C. barbata. Leaves long and flat, scabrous on the upper 

 surface, the sheaths either quite glabrous or sprinkled with rigid hairs arising 

 from tubercles. Peduncles usually solitary within the leaf-sheaths, with a narrow 

 sheathing bract shorter than the spike and remaining closed over its base. 

 Spikes 3 to 4in. long with 3 to 6 female spikelets at the base, exactly superposed 

 in a single row and closely appressed, the hard shining outer glume 4 to 5 lines 

 long and embracing the rhachis as in C, barbata, the female part of the spike 

 usually included in the leaf-sheath even when ripe. Male spikelets numerous in 

 the upper part of the spike, usually turned in pairs to one side, 4 to 6 lines long, 

 the glumes varying from obtuse to acutely acuminate. — Sclerachne cyathopoda, F. 

 V. M. Fragm. viii. 116 ; Chionachne cyathopoda, F. v. M.; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 

 616. 



Hab.: Gulf of Carpentaria, Landshorough ; Dawson and Comet Elvers, Leichhardt ; liook- 

 hampton and neighbourhood, Bowman, Thozet, O'Shanesy. Common by the northern rivers. 



3. P. Sclerachne (Sclerachne-like), Bail. Stems erect, slender and leafy, 

 from a knotty more or less woolly base, 1ft. or more high. Leaves erect, the 

 sheath closed with rather long white silky hairs, and prominently nerved, ligula 

 short-oiliate. lamina narrow, tapering to a fine point, more or less hairy but the 

 hairs very short. Inflorescence axillary, very short ; on the specimens examined 

 there were a few pedicels which probably bore male spikelets. Female spikelets 

 nearly sessile, glumes hardened and smooth, outer 2 lines long, keebd and 

 faintly-nerved, obtuse, margins thin, 2nd glume thick, hard, almost enclosing 

 the rest, and about -J line longer than the others, and bearing a blunt point ; 3rd 

 glume thinner, striate, as long as the outer ; 4th glume almost hyaline. Palea 

 narrow. Grain free, dark-brown, and about 1 line long. — Chionachne Sclerachne, 

 Bail. Bot. Bull. 2. 



Hab.: Lloyd Bay, Cape York Peninsula, T. A. Gulliver ; Somerset, Bailey. 

 It is but a poor-looking wiry grass, but horses are said to be fond of it. 



28. *EUCHLiENA, Schrad. 



(Well glumed.) 



Male inflorescence terminal, paniculate. Female in axillary spikes, enclosed in 

 the glumes like the maize, to which this genus in very closely allied. The female 

 spikelets are, however, superposed in a single row on an articulated rhachis in a 

 eingle spike. 



