Arthmaion.] OLIII. GBAMINBJl. 1867 



1. A> Ciliare (oiliate), Ream. Aqrostogr. Ill, t. 11, /. 6; Benth, Fl. Austr. 

 vii. 524. Stems slender, decumbent or creeping at the base, branching and 

 ascending often 5 to 6ft. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute, 1 to l|in. long, 

 cordate at the base, the sheaths' usually ciliate with long hairs. Spikes usually 3 

 or 4, shortly pedicellate, forming a little simple panicle of about lin., the rhachia 

 and abortive pedicels glabrous. Spikelets few, rarely above 6in., each branch or 

 spike about 2 lines long. Outer glume acute, with about 7 equally prominent 

 more or less murioate nerves ; keel of the 2nd glume ciliate towards the top ; 

 terminal or flowering glume obtuse entire or very shortly 2-lobed, the dorsal awn 

 proceeding quite from the base, fine and about twice as long as the spikelet. — 

 Patratherum echinatum, Nees in Edinb. New Phil. Journ. xviii. 181 ; Andropogon 

 echinatua, Heyne in Steud. Syn. Glum. i. 382. 



Hab.: In southern localities. 



87. APLUDA, Linn. 



(From the resemblance of glumes to chaff.) 



Spikelets with 1 fertile flower and a male one below it, sessile between 2 

 flattened pedicels, bearing each a rudimentary or barren spikelet, the whole 

 embraced by a sheathing bract, the bracts clustered on the branches of a leafy 

 panicle. Outer glume of the sessile spikelet concave, striate, awnless, 2nd glume 

 acute, awnless, thin but stiff, 3rd very thin and hyaline, 4th or terminal glume 

 very thin and hyaline, entire or bifid at the top, awnless or with a slender twisted 

 terminal awn. Palea very thin or none. Styles distinct. Grain enclosed in the 

 outer glumes free from them. 



A small genus spread over tropical Africa and Asia, the subjoined species a common one 

 perhaps not Indigenous in Australia. 



1. A. mutica (pointless), Linn.; Kunth, Enum. i. 516; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 vii. 544. Stem creeping or climbing, several feet long, with erect branching 

 flowering shoots. Leaves long, usually glabrous. Panicles loose and leafy, 1 to 

 2ft. long. Bracts subtending the spikelets 3 to 4 lines long, very concave, striate, 

 with short sometimes awn-like points, in clusters of 5 or 6. Sessile spikelet 

 shorter than the bract ; pedicellate spikelets either- reduced to a rudimentary 

 glume or more developed and protruding beyond the bract. Awns of the terminal 

 glume very minute or scarcely deficient. — -Maiden. Ag. Gaz. N.S.W. x. 



Hab.: Recorded for Queensland by F. v. M. without locality. 



38. ROTTBOELLIA, Linn. f. partly. 



(After F. Eottboell.) 



Spikelets in pairs in the alternate notches of the articulate rhachis of a simple 

 spike, 1 sessile and embedded in a cavity of the rhachis, with 1 hermaphrodite 

 flower and sometimes a male one below it, the other on a closely appressed 

 pedicel but often spreading, with a male or rarely hermophrodite flower, or 

 reduced to 1 or 2 empty glumes, the spike single on each peduncle above a 

 sheathing bract and cylindrical or nearly so. Glumes in the sessile spikelet 4, 

 the outer one coriaceous, closely covering the cavity of the rhachis, the 2nd 

 thinner but often rigid, concave or keeled, the 3rd and 4th a,nd pale® very thin 

 and hyaline, all awnless. Styles distinct. Grain enclosed in the glumes but 

 free from them. 



The genus extends over tropical Asia and Africa with at least one American species. Of the 

 four Australian ones, two have a wide ran^e in tropical Asia, the other two are endemic. — Benth. 



Rottboellia Tias originally founded by the younger Linnseas on five species which are now 

 separated into as many genera. Brown's proposal to restrict the name to the B. exaltata an4 

 allied species since added has now been generally adopted. — Benth, 



