234: ’ QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JourNAL. [1 Sepz., 1897. 
Order GRAMINEZ. . 
PASPALUM, Linn. 
P, Polo, Bail. (n. sp.) Stems few from each root, erect, somewhat flattened 
and slender, 13 ft. high. The sheaths of the leaves on the lower part of the 
stems hirsute with stiff spreading hairs, the upper ones glabrous except for a 
few long hairs about the orifice ; ligula scarious, truncate; blades 5 to 6 in. long, 
3 lines broad, tapering to filiform points, glabrous, with nearly smooth edges. 
Spikes usually 2, when 8 two together at the top and the third inserted lower 
down, 2 in. long, slightly tomentose at the base. Spikelets about 1 line long, 
oval-orbicular, in 2 crowded rows, on very short pedicels. Outer glumes with 
a prominent midrib and a faintly marked nerye on each side near the margin. 
Fruiting glume hard glossy-brown with no visible nerves. i 
Hab.: Polo Creek, Somerset, Cape York Peninsula. This may probably prove a useful 
pasture grass. 
P. platycaule, Por. Stems creeping close to the ground and rooting at the 
nodes ; internodes very short, erect stems from each node, flat, very leafy at 
the base, about 12 or 15 in. high; nodes woolly-hairy; leaf-sheaths very flat, 
glabrous, with ciliate margins; ligula rather short and jagged, lamina narrow- 
oblong, apex blunt, hairy about the base, margins undulate and ciliate; lower, 
leaves 4 or 5 in. long and 7 to 8 lines broad, the upper one smaller. Pedunclo 
exceeding the upper leaf by about 2in. Spikes 2 or 3, hairy at the base ; when 
3 two at the end of the peduncle and the other $-in. lower; about 2 in. 
long, rhachis slightly flexuose. Spikelets alternate forming a single row; outer 
2 glumes marked with 2 green lines on each margin, softly hairy ; others nearly 
white, neryeless, with a small tuft of hairs at the apex of the third. 
_ Hab. : Cairns and along the Mulgrave road. This grass forms a very close flat turf of a deep 
bright green, and would be suitable for lawns and for an edging around flower-beds, besides 
which it is doubtless an excellent permanent pasture grass. It is indigenous in Tropical Africa 
and America, but whether indigenous in Queensland is at present uncertain. 
ERIOCHLOA, H. B. & K. 
E. decumbens, Bail. (n. sp.) A weak decumbent grass, the stems slender 
and branching, often geniculate, 1 to 2 ft. long, more or less pubescent about 
the nodes. Leaves 3 to 5 in. long, tapering from the base to fine thread- 
like points, pubescent at top of sheath; the ligulareduced to cilia, Spikes or 
anicle-branches about 5, secund, 1 in. long, pedicels with numerous long 
faics especially under the spikelets. Spikelets silky, with the long fine awn 
2 lines long; 2 outer glumes silky membranous, with rather long awns; 3rd 
glume shorter punctulate awned, somewhat coriaceous; stigmas dark-purple. 
. Hab.: On rocks, Hammond Island, Torres Strait. This grass differs from the other 
Australian species of the genus, principally in habit. 
RUBBER-BEARING VIG OF RIGO, NEW GUINEA. - 
I have lately received a small packet from Mr. EH. Cowley, of Kamerunga 
State Nursery, containing specimens of a Ficus which he informs me he had 
from Mr. Musgrave, of New Guinea, with the notice that they were off a tree 
from which rubber was being obtained in the Rigo District. The species 
approaches #. retusa, Linn., of which there are several varieties. It, however, 
differs, in my opinion, from all these in the leaf venation. So I have, at Mr. 
Cowley’s suggestion, attached the name of the district in which the tree 
abounds as a specific name for the plant, and hope the brief description here 
given may assist rubber-gatherers to identify the tree. | 
4 
. 
