59 



GRAMINEJil. 



Festuca litoralis. 



Labill. Not. Holl. Plant. Specim. i. 22, t. 27 ; E. Brown, Prodrom. i. 178 

 Poiret, Encyclop. Suppl. ii. 639 ; Ach. Eioli. Voy. de I'Astrol. i. 123 

 Kunth, Enum. Plant, i. 409 ; ii. 340 ; D. Dietr. Synops. Plant, i. 379 

 J. Hook. Fl. Tasm. i. 128 ; F. scoparia, J. Hook. Flor. Antarctic, i. 99 

 Fl. Nor. Zeel. i. 308 ; Schedonorus litoralis, Beauvois, Essai d'une Nouvelle 

 Agrostographie, 99 ; Eoem. et Scliult. Syst. Veget. ii. 707 ; J. Hook. Flor. 

 Nov. Zeel. i. 310 ; Triodia Billardierii, Sprengel, Syst. Veget. i. 330 ; 

 Arundo triodioides, Trinius, Spec. Graniin. iii. t. 351 ; Steudel, Synops. 

 Glumac. i. 194. 



On moist places of Chatham- Island. 



In Australia this plant is restricted to the sandy coast, where it 

 is very abundant along a great extent of the extratropical shores 

 northward at least as far as Moreton Bay. By its creeping root it 

 aids in the retention of the sand. 



The plant of Mr. Travers's collection has the glumellse long- 

 bearded towards the base and toothless at the apex ; nor is the 

 character of the tridenticulated glumella always apparent in the 

 Australian plant. 



This species mediates, as already indicated by R Brown, the 

 transit to Triodia, and at least some species of this genus are in- 

 separable from Festuca ; for instance, Festuca irritans (Trioflia irri- 

 tans, R. Br. Prodr. ] 82), the Porcupine-Grass of the colonists and 

 the Spinifex of many of the Australian explorers, a plant widely 

 dispersed through the extratropical sandy desert, reaching to near 

 the shores at St. Vincent's and Spencer's Gulf; this species has the 

 lower glumella terminated by three but exceedingly short teeth, of 

 which the middle one is almost obliterated. 



Festuca viscida (Triodia pungens, E. Br. Prodr. 182 non Beauv. ; 

 T. viscida, Rcem. et Schult. Syst. Vegetab. ii. 599) is of common 

 occurrence on the sandstone tablelands of North Australia, and ex- 

 tends to the islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. This species has 

 the lower glumella much deeper toothed than that of the preceding 

 congener, to small forms of which it is similar in external appearance; 

 the teeth being from one-third to one-sixth of the length of the 

 glumella and acute. T. procera (R Br. Prodr. 182) seems a variety 

 of F. viscida according to the diagnosis, to which some specimina 

 from the rocky desert-hills at the sources of the Victoria-Eiver suffi- 

 ciently respond. The length of the glumella and the degree of its 

 pubescence are variable. 



