a grass known in India, China, andthe Pacific, but especially common on Australasian shores. Theword means, literally, thorn-making, but it is notclassical Latin. «The aggregated flowers form large clusters,and their radiating heads, becoming detached at maturity, arecarried by the wind along the sand, propelled by their elasticspines and dropping their seeds as they roll.» (Mueller.)This peculiarity gains for the Hairy Spinifex( Spinifex hirsutus, Labill.) the additional name of Spiny Rolling Grass. See also quotation, 1877. Thischief species ( S. hirsutus) is present on the shores ofnearly all Australasia, and has varioussynonyms – – S. sericeus, Raoul.; S. inermis, Banksand Sol.; Ixalum inerme, Forst.; S. fragilis,R.B., etc. It is a «coarse, rambling, much-branched, rigid,spinous, silky or woolly, perennial grass, with habitats nearthe sea on sandhills, or saline soils more inland.» (Buchanan.)
The Desert Spinifex of the early explorers, and of manysubsequent writers, is not a true Spinifex, but a Fescue; it is properly called Porcupine Grass (q.v.), and is a species of Triodia. The quotations,1846, 1887, 1890, and 1893, involve this error.
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii.c. vi. p. 209:
«In the valley was a little sandy soil, nourishing the Spinifex.»
1877. Baron von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 125:
«The Desert Spinifex of our colonists is a Fescue, but a true Spinifex occupies our sand-shores; . . . the heads areso buoyant as to float lightly on the water, and while theiruppermost spiny rays act as sails, they are carried acrossnarrow inlets, to continue the process of embarking.»
1887. J. Bonwick, `Romance of Wool Trade,' p. 239:
«Though grasses are sadly conspicuous by their absence, salineplants, so nutritious for stock, occur amidst the real desertsof Spinifex.»
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 43:
«On the broad sandy heights . . . the so-called spinifex isfound in great abundance. This grass ( Triodia irritans)is the traveller's torment, and makes the plains, which itsometimes covers for hundreds of miles, almost impassable. Itsblades, which have points as sharp as needles, often prick thehorses' legs till they bleed.»
1893. A. F. Calvert, `English Illustrated Magazine,' Feb.,p. 325:
«They evidently preferred that kind of watercress to the leavesof the horrid, prickly Spinifex, so omnipresent in thenorth-western district.»
1896. R. Tate, `Horne Expedition in Central Australia,'Botany, p. 119:
«A species of Triodia (`porcupine grass,' or incorrectly`spinifex' of explorers and residents) dominates sandy groundand the sterile slopes and tops of the sandstone table-lands.»