bimeria.] (JLIII. GRAMINfeife. 1851 



base. Outer glume rather thick, complicate, not bordered, the keel minutely 

 serrate-ciliolate ; 2nd glume rather longer, nearly as thick but bordered by a thin 

 hyaline margin, the keel more prominent at the end. Terminal flowering glume 

 very narrow and hyaline, shortly 2-lob6d, distinctly keeled, the keel produced 

 into a capillary twisted and bent awn of about iin. Stamens 3 (R, Brown). 

 Hab.: Endeavour River, Baiil;s and Solander. 



2. p. ornithopoda (bird's foot), 'I'rin. I<und. Agrost. 167, t. 14 ; Hook, in 

 Fl. Brit. hid. vii. 104. A slender branching annual, with filiform stems Bin. to 

 1ft. high, erect or weak and decumbent. Leaves narrow, ciliate, the sheaths 

 sprinkled with long spreading hairs, the ligula short, truncate. Spikes 2, filiform, 



1 to l|-in. long. Spikelets about 1 line long, very narrow, without any or rarely 

 an exceedingly minute tuft of hairs at the base. Glumes thinner than in D. 

 acinaciformis, the outer one usually sprinkled with a few hairs and the 2nd 

 shortly ciliate on the hyaline margins, the 3rd very small, or perhaps sometimes 

 deficient. Terminal flowering glume rather shorter than the outer ones, scarcely 

 notched, the awn appearing auite terminal. — D. tenera, Trin. in Mem. Acad. 

 Petersb. ser. 6, ii. 225 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 523 ; Bail. 111. Mono. Gr. Ql. 

 i ; B. psilobasis, F. v. M. Fragm. vii. 104. 



Hab.: Cairns, Bailey; Tully River, /. F. Bailey. 



Widely spread over East India, from the Peninsula to Nepaul and Mergui. 



3. I>. glabriuscuia (nearly glabrous), Bail. 3rd Suppl. Sijn. Ql. Flora. 

 A slender, erect, glabrous, slightly branching, annual grass, of from 9 to 18in. in 

 height. Leaves with narrow erect laminae 1 to IJin. long, the ligula truncate, 

 and prominent for the size of leaf and stem. Spikes 2, filiform, 1| to 2in. long ; 

 spikelets about 1 line long. Outer glume setaceous, slightly spreading; the 

 others with rigid keel, and broad hyaline but not ciliate margins ; 3rd glume 

 small, hyaline ; flowering glume very short, hyaline, with terminal awn about 



2 lines, twisted in the lower half. 



Hab.: Harvey's Creek. 



This species is nearly allied to the Queensland form of D. ornithopoda, Trin., but differs from 

 that species in its more rigidly erect-growth, besides being glabrous, and wanting the cilite to the 

 hyaline margins of the second glume. 



31. IMPERATA, Cyr. 



(After Ferranti Imperati.) 



Spikelets with 1 or rarely 2 flowers, usually in pairs one sessile the other 

 pedicellate along the slender continuous rhachis of the short branches of a long 

 cylindrical spikelike panicle, densely silky with the long hairs surrounding and 

 seated on the spikelets. Glumes 4, all thin hyaline and awnless, 2 outer empty 

 ones usually hairy, the 3rd empty or rarely enclosing a flower smaller and without 

 hairs ; terminal flowering glume still smaller. Palea usually truncate and jagged 

 at the top. Stamens 2, or 1 only in species not Australian. Styles distinct. 

 Grain small, free, enclosed in the outer glumes. 



Besides the Australian species which is widely spread over the temperate and tropical regions 

 especially of the Old World, the genus contains others chiefly American. 



1. I. arundinacea (reed-like), Cyr.; Kunth, Enum. i. 477 ; Bmth. Fl. Austt. 

 vii. 536. Blady Grass. " Dirnbur," Cape Bedford, i?o«/i. A stiff erect perennial 

 1 to 3ft. high, glabrous except sometimes a tuft of hairs at the nodes. Leaves erect, 

 narrow, often longer than the stem. Spikelike panicle very dense, 3 to Sin. long, 

 regularly cylindrical, silvery white with the long silky hairs concealing the 

 glumes, the dark- coloured stigmas and oblong-linear anthers alone protruding ; 



