1870 CLIII. GRAMINEiE. [Sorghum. 



clothed with dark-brown or at times light-brown hairs ; second glume nearly 

 glabrous, glossy, and of a very dark colour ; 8rd glume hyaline ; awn over lin. 

 long, much twisted in the lower half. 



Hab : Mulgrave Biver. 



The awns of this grass remind one of Heteropogon contortus by the manner in which 

 they twist into knots, but it is a much more delicate grass. In inflorescence it approaches 

 Chrysopogon, but the glumes are those of a Sorghum. 



47. ANTHISTIRIA, Linn. 

 (The Greek name for a species of grass.) 

 (Iseilema, Anders.) 

 Spikelets 1 -flowered or empty, 7 rarely 6 in a spike or cluster, 4 male or 

 barren, either sessile or pedicellate in a whorl at the base of the hairy rhachis, 2 

 or sometimes 1 pedicellate and male or barren on the top of the rhachis with an 

 intermediate sessile fertile one. Glumes in the barren spikelets usually 2, the 

 outer one several-nerved, the inner thin and hyaline, in the male spikelets usually 

 a 3rd smaller hyaline one ; in the fertile spikelet glumes 4, the 2 outer ones 

 nearly equal, usually rigid and coriaceous, the outer one obscurely 5 or 7-nerved, 

 the 2nd with 2 prominent nerves the central one very faint, 3rd glume much 

 smaller, very thin and hyaline ; 4fch very narrow and thin at the base, thickened 

 into a long twisted awn usually bent above the middle. Palea very small and 

 hyaline, sometimes scarcely conspicuous. Styles distinct. Grain free, enclosed 

 in the hardened outer glumes. — Erect leafy branching grasses, the spikes or 

 clusters singly pedunculate within sheathing bracts, or sessile in the bracts and 

 collected many together in compound clusters forming short almost cyme-like 

 leafy panicles. 



The genus is spread over the warmer regions of the Old World, extending into South Africa. 



The 4 whorled barren spikelets sessile. Awn very long and rigid. 

 Spikelets in dense compound clusters, sessile within the bracts. 

 Bracts glabrous. Barren spikelets glabrous or sprinkled with long cilia. 



Fertile spikelet glabrous or shortly pubescent at the end 1. A. ciliata. 



Bracts sprinkled with long spreading hairs. Spikelets nearly of A. 



ciliata 2. A.frondosa. 



Spikelets with,the surrounding barren ones on slender pedicels within the 

 sheathing bracts. Barren spikelets glabrous. Fertile one densely villous 

 with brown hairs S. A. avenacea. 



1. A., ciliata (ciliate), Linn.; Kunth, Enrnn. i. 481 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 

 542. Kangaroo Grass. Stems 1 to 3ft. high. Leaves narrow, glabrous or the 

 sheaths hairy ; ligula very short, sometimes ciliate. Spikes or clusters of 

 spikelets not numerous, sessile or the lower ones pedunculate in a short terminal 

 leafy panicle, the leafy bracts subtending each spike sheathing at the base and 

 tapering into points longer than the cluster, the short rhachis bearded with long 

 brown hairs. Spikelets narrow, 4 to 5 lines long, 4 male or barren sessile at the 

 base of the bearded rhachis, 2 or 1 pedicellate at the top, glabrous or sprinkled 

 with a few long hairs ; outer glume the largest, acute, many-nerved, 2nd shorter, 

 thin and 8 or 5-nerved, 3rd thin and hyaline. Fertile terminal spikelet glabrous 

 or shortly pubescent at the end ; outer glume broad, obtuse, rather thick, about 

 7-nerved, 2nd rigid, rather shorter and narrower, with 2 prominent lateral nerves 

 and a faint central one, 3rd narrow-oblong, very thin and hyaline ; awn or 4th 

 glume very long and rigid, the attenuate base not dilated. — Turner Ag. Gaz. 

 N.S.W. i. ; Bail. 111. Mono. Gr. Q. i. ; A. amtralis, R. Br. Prod. 200; Hook. f. 

 M. Tasm. ii. 107, t. 156 ; F. v. M. Fragm. v. 207 ; A. caspitosa, Anders. Monogr. 

 Androp. 13, and, from the character given, A. cuspidata, Anders. I.e. 14. 



Hab.: Abundant throughout the State. 



