BY FRED. TURNER. 387 



both species the ripe fruits are often suspended from the spikelets 

 by rather long filaments, which have a singular appearance. The 

 long leaves of these plants have involute, scabrous margins ending 

 in long, subulate points. On two occasions I rode through tracts 

 of country nearly covered with these plants, and was much cut 

 about the face and hands with the fine, saw-like edges of their 

 leaves. The Order Graminece is a most important one, and its 

 numerous indigenous species are well distributed all over the 

 North- East. Most of the principal grasses, from a stock-owner's 

 point of view, have been figured and described, as to their 

 economic value, by me under instructions from the Government 

 of New South Wales. Several of the exotic species, which have 

 become acclimatised in this region, have a high feeding value, 

 and a few of them are largely cultivated with much success in 

 the dairying districts. The main area devoted to pasture, how- 

 ever, is composed of the valuable indigenous grasses, many of 

 which have a high reputation amongst stock-owners for their 

 feeding qualities. There are also several species which are very 

 useful for binding the littoral sands or preventing erosion of the 

 banks of tidal and other rivers and creeks. In the former 

 category may be included Imperata arundinacea Cyr., Schedo- 

 norus littoralis Beauv., Spinifex hirsutus Labill., and Zoysia 

 pungens Willd., and in the latter Phraymites communis Trim, 

 the " Common Reed." This stout, perennial grass, sometimes 

 only five feet high, at others attaining an altitude of twelve feet, 

 grows equally well on the margins of tidal and non-tidal streams, 

 and if judiciously planted where the banks are liable to erosion 

 by floods and the wash of passing steamers, it would protect them 

 and prevent the rivers silting up. 



Acotyledonece, as regards vascular Cryptogams, and this Paper 

 does not deal with cellular Cryptogams, are well represented, 

 both by genera and species, and occur in more or less abundance 

 over a great part of this region. Lycopodiacece include several 

 interesting and ornamental plants. Two of the four species of 

 Lycopodium, viz : — L. cernuum Linn., and L. densum Labill., 

 when "rowing in favourable situations, sometimes attain a height 



