Ectrosia.] CLIII. GRAMINE^E. I909 



a. fine awn nearly as long as the glume. Terminal empty glumes usually 2 or 3, 

 smaller than the flowering one but with longer fine awns. — Kunth, Revis. Gram' 

 t. 69. 



Hab.: Coen Kiver, R. Brotvn; Cleveland Bay, A. Cunningham; between Norman and Gilbert 

 Bivers, GMwer; Cape Yotk, UlcQiUivray, Daemel; Endeavour River, Banks and- Solander ■ 

 Brisbane Eiver, F. v. Mueller ; Parling Downs, Law. ■ ' 



Var. micrantha. A Smaller plant with setaceous leaves. Panicle looser, the spilcelets much 

 smaller, crowded on the short erect branches as in the smaller specimens of E. leporina. 



Hab.: Between Norman and Gilbert Rivers, Gulliver. 



2. a. GuUiveri (after T. A. Gulliver), F. v. M. Fragm. viii. 201 ; Benth. Fl. 

 Aunti: vii. 634. A slender erect annual of Gin. to 1ft.', with setaceous leaves. 

 Panicle narrow but loose, with spreading branches ciliate as well as the very 

 short pedicels with a few long hairs. Spikelets spreading or reflexed. Outer 

 glumes membranous, very pointed, about 1 line long. Flowering glumes 1 or '1, 

 at first very similar to the outer ones, but in the fruiting spikelet rigid, ovate, 

 3-nerved at the base, tapering into a fine very spreading point, giving the spikelet 

 a squarrose aspect. Terminal empty glumes 2 to 4, with longer points or awns 

 but rarely exceeding 1 line.— Bail. 111. Mono. Gr. Q. i. 



Hab.: Between Norman and Gilbert Rivers, Gulliver. 



The spikelets have frequently only 1 fertile flower but occasionally there are 2 fertile ones and 

 a third male. — Benth. 



79. HETERACHNE, Benth. 

 (Various glumed.) 

 Spikelets very flat, with 1 fertile flower and several empty glumes above it, 

 nearly sessile and crowded in one or more globular heads, the rhachis of the 

 spikelet articulate only under the perfect flower, very flexuose' and continuous 

 above it. Glumes complicate, keeled, rather obtuse, unawned, 2 outer empty 

 ones persistent, the rest oi the spikelet falling away with the fruit. Palea nearly 

 as long as the flowering glume, folded, with 2 broad dorsal wings. Styles short, 

 distinct. Grain oblique or curved, enclosed in the glume and palea but free from 

 them. 



The genus is limited to the two Australian species, which appear more nearly allied to 

 Ectrosia and Elytrophorus than to Eragrostis, but singular in the whole spikelet with the 

 exception of the outer glumes forming as it were an appendage to the grain. — Benth. 



Spikelets ovate, 2J to 3J lines long, with more than 6 upper empty glumes, 

 in 1 or 2 heads, sessile in the leaf-sheaths or the upper one shortly 

 pedunculate 1. H. Brownii. 



Spikelets orbicular, scarcely IJ line diameter, with less than 6 upper empty 

 glumes, in several globular small heads, forming a pedunculate interrupted 

 spike . 2. H Qulliveri. 



1. R. Brownii (after Dr. R. Brown), Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 635. Stem.s Gin. 



to 1ft. high, rigid, simple or slightly branched, sometimes slender and almost 



filiform. Leaves convolute, narrow, with broad loose sheaths. Heads of 



spikelets few, sessile in the upper sheaths or the terminal one shortly pedunculate, 



very dense, about |in. diameter and ^ to lin. long. Spikelets nearly sessile, 



surrounded by a few loose hairs. Outer empty glumes persistent, rather smaller 



than the flowering ones. Deciduous part of the spikelet ovate, 2^ to 8^ lines 



long, the rhachis slightly hairy on the persistent part, glabrous above the 



articulation, very much recurved and incurved above the flowering, glume and 



flexuose between the upper ones which vary in number from 6 to 14, all empty or 



with a small palea in the lower ones, narrow, about 1 line long, mostly; without 



lateral nerves, the keel narrowly winged. Palea rather shorter than the glume, 



the wings broad, hyaline and shortly ciliate. — Poa abortiva, R. Br. Prod. 181, 



Hab. : Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, E. Brown and J. F. Bailey. 



Past VI. p 



