^912 CLIII. GRAMINE^. [Triodia, 



inches to 1ft. long. Spikelets under 3 lines long, very numerous, nearly sessile 

 on the erect branches, mostly about 3-ffowered. Flowering glumes scarcely 

 exceeding the outer ones, hairy at the base, divided to near the midme into 6 

 acute lobes as in T. pungens, but very much smaller. " 



Hab.: Suttor Desert, F. v. Mueller ; and other inland localities. 



4. T. irritans (irritating), R Br. Prod. 182; Benth. tl. Austr. vii. 607. 

 Porcupine Grass. A rigid scrubby glabrous grass, with long rigid convolute 

 pungent-pointed leaves, not viscid in any of the specimens seen. Panicle 

 narrow, almost spikelike, 3 to 6in. long. Spikelets solitary or few together on 

 short erect capillary pedicels or branches, mostly 3 or 4-flowered, 4 to 5 lines 

 long. Outer glumes glabrous, acute, 5-nerved, 8 lines long. Flowering glamea 

 not quite so long, villous, with silky hairs at the base but much less so thdn in 

 T. pungens, truncate at the end, with 3 sets of 3 nerves each leading to three 

 very short obtuse or truncate lobes or teeth, the lateral ones rather broad, the 

 central one smaller or minute. Palea narrow. — Festuea irritans,, F. v. M. Veg. 

 Chath. Isl. 59, Fragm. viii. 129. 



Hab.: Southern inland localities. 



82, DIPLACHNE, Beauv. 



(Referring to the 2-lobed flowering glume.) 



Spik&letsi several, often many flowered, linear, sessile or very sbprtl j pedieellate, 

 but distant along the rhachis of a simple spike or of the elongated. Vanches of a 

 simple panicle, the rhachis of the spikelet articulate and usually hairy, under the 

 flowering; glumes. Outer empty glumes keeled, acuta, unawned; flowering 

 glumes with a hyaline shortly 2-lobed apex, the keel produced into a short point 

 or awn between or shortly below the lobes. Palea thin, prominently 2-nerved. 

 Styles short, distinct. Grain smooth, free. 



A geniis of tew species, generally spread over the warmer regions of the globe. 



Spikes slender, simple ' . . '. . . 1. D. hliiformis. 



Spikes numerous in a simple panicle. 



Spikelets pale-coloured, 5 fo 8 lines long, 8 to 12-flowered. Ehachis with 



a tuft of long hairs under the glumes . . : 2. D. Muelleri. 



Spikelets usually dark-coloured, 4 lines long or rather more, with more 



than 6-flower3, rhachis glabrous, or nearly so 3. D. fmca. 



- \i . ^' -T 



1. B. loliiformis (Lolium-like), F. i;. Af. ; Bmth. Fl. Austr. vii. 618. A 

 ^lender apparently annual erect grass, usually 6 to Sin. high but sometimes more. 

 Leaves chiefly at the base, short and narrow, usually spriflkled with a few long 

 hairs, the sheaths ciliate at the orifice, with a shoi:t jagged ligula. Spik^ slender 

 and ^simple, 2 to 4in. long, on a long peduncle. BpikeletB sessile, rathef distant, 

 erect and appressed, turned somewhat to one side, narrow, 3 to 4 lines long, 6 to 

 12-flowered, the rhachis hairy round the flowering glumes. Flowering glumes 

 about 1 line ong, glahrpus, 3-nerved, the central nerve produced into a fine point 

 or awn shortly exceeding the hyaline Xoh^s.—Fesiuca or Leptochloa loliiformis, F. 

 V. M. Fragm. viii. 128. • >. 



BmnL^O'slZ^y^''''^^^^"^"^'"^'"^^^ ^"'^'"•"^ '°'=*''"«^ "bout Bockhampton, 



2. D. Muelleri (after Baron F. y. Mueller), Benth. FL Austr vii 619 A 

 glabrous erect grass of about Uft. nearly allied to D.fusca, with i similar foliage 

 and inflorescence, but the spikelets fewer, pale-coloured, 5 to 8 lines long with 8 

 to 12 flowers. Flowering glumes surrounded by a tuft of rather Ion- hairs and 



