Deyeuxia.] GLIII. GRAMINE/E. 1883 



usually produced beyond it in a small ciliate or rarely glabrous bristle very rarely 

 bearing an empty glume or imperfect flower, sometimes very minute, rarely 

 deficient. Glumes 3, 2 outer ones persistent, keeled, unawned ; flowering glume 

 shorter aad very thin, about as long or rarely longer and membranous, broad, 

 enclosing the flower, 5-nerved, with a fine dorsal awn usually bent and twisted, 

 rarely short and straight or very rarely deficient. Palea thin, more than half 

 as long as the glume, faintly or prominently 2-nerved. Styles distinct, short. 

 Grain enclosed in the glume and palea and sometimes partially adhering to 

 them. 



A considerable genus, spread over the warmer and temperate regions both of the New and 

 the Old World. • 



Flowering glume very thin, almost hyaline, much shorter than the empty 

 ones. 

 Panicle loose and spreading or in smaller plants narrow. Ehachis of the 

 spikelet produced into a hairy bristle. 

 Spikelets IJ to 2 lines long. Flowering glume usually hairy truncate or 

 shortly toothed, the awn about the middle. Panicle spreading . . . 1. D. Forsteri. 

 Panicle dense and spikelike or shortly branched. Rhachis of the spikelet 

 produced into a glabrous or minute bristle or not continued beyond 

 the flower. 

 Spikelets IJ to 2 lines. Awn almost basal. Bristle of the rhachis 



minute or none ........ . . . . 2. D. quadriseta. 



Flowering glume nearly or quite as long as the outer ones, membranous, 

 often minutely scabrous or pubescent. 

 Panicle very loose. Awn very small and straight above tke middle of the 

 flowering glume or reduced to a small point near the summit .... 3. D. icabra. 



1. S. Porsteri (after J. E. Forster), Kunth, Enum. i. 244 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 vii. 579. A common grass, very variable in habit, usually erect or decumbent, 



1 to 2ft. high or rather more, with flat rather flaccid leaves, but sometimes 

 smaller with convolute or fine almost filiform leaves. Panicle usually very 

 loose and spreading when fully out, Gin. to 1ft. long, with long capillary 

 divided branches in distant whorls or clusters. Spikelets very numerous. Outer 

 glumes narrow, very pointed, 1 to 1^ lines long or in some varieties nearly 



2 lines. Flowering glume about half as long, thin and almost hyaline, broad, 

 enveloping the flower, truncate or very shortly and unequally 2 or 4-toothed, 

 sprinkled or densely covered with hairs on the back, rarely almost glabrous, 

 surrounded by the hairs of the rhachis, with a fine twisted awn attached about 

 the middle of the back. Palea very narrow. Rhachis produced into a bristle 

 usually very short and ciliate with a few long hairs. — Bail. 111. Mono. Gr. Q. i. ; 

 Turn. Ag. Gaz. N.S.W. ii.; Agrostis Forsteri, Eoem. and Schult. Syst. ii. 359 ; 

 A. amula, R. Br. Prod. 172; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 115 ; Buch. Ind. Gr. N.Z. PI. 

 xxi. ; A. retrofracta, Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. 94 ; Lachnagrostis retrofracta, 

 Trin. Fund. Agrost. 128 ; L. Willdenowii, Trin. Gram. Unifl. 217 ; Calcemagrostis 

 mmula and C. Willdenowii, Steud. Syn. Glum. i. 192 ; Agrostis dehilis, Poir. Diet. 

 Suppl. i. 249 (from the descr. confirmed by Kunth) ; A. Solandri, F. v. M. Veg. 

 Chath. Isl. 60; A. semibarbata, Trin. in Mem. Acad. Petersb. series 6, vi. 378 

 (from the char, given). 



Hab.: Warwick, SecMer; Darling Downs, IFooZis. Very common in southern localities. 

 This is a quick-growing grass, springing up with the slightest shower of rain, especially in 

 winter. 



2. D. quadriseta (4-bristled), Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 581. A glabrous and 

 smooth or scabrous erect perennial, very variable in stature, usually 1 to .3ft. 

 high. Leaves narrow, erect or spreading, flat or convolute when dry. Panicle 

 dense and spikelike, varying from IJ or 2in. to 8 or lOin. long, when small 

 closely cylindrical, when large more branched, but the spikelets always densely 

 crowded from the base of the short erect branches. Outer glumes narrow, very 

 acute, with a scabrous or minutely ciliate keel, the sides smooth, 1| to near 



