848 GRAMINE. | Panicum. 
The single New Zealand species belongs to the section Digitaria, often kept as 
a distinct genus, in which the spikelets are almost sessile on one side of simple 
digitate spikes. 
1. P. sanguinale, Linn. Sp. Plant. 57.—Annual. Culms creep- 
ing or rooting at the base, then spreading or erect, 6-18in. long. 
Leaves 1-6in. long by +-4in. broad, flat, flaccid, pubescent or 
glabrous ; sheaths thin, rather loose, often pilose and bearded at 
the nodes; ligules truncate, membranous. Spikes few or many, 
usually 3-6, varying in length from 1 to 4 in., crowded at the end of 
the culm, strict, spreading or erect; rhachis triquetrous or flattened. 
margins scaberulous. Spikelets geminate, one sessile, the other 
pedicelled, oblong-lanceolate, acute, greenish or purplish, 5-3/5 In. 
long. Outer glume very minute, ovate, acute; 2nd small, ovate- 
lanceolate, 3-nerved, about 4 the length of the flowering glume ; 
3rd rather longer than the flowering glume, oblong, acute, 6—7- 
nerved, the nerves often ciliate; 4th or flowering glume oblong, 
firm and subcoriaceous, acute or acuminate.—Benth. Fl. Austral. 
vii. 469; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 175. 
KERMADEC IsLanps: Not uncommon in shady places. NortH AnD SourTH 
Isuanps: Abundant as a naturalised weed. 
The Kermadec Islands plant, which is the only one which can be con- 
sidered as indigenous, is referred by Hackel to the variety microbachne (Panicum 
nvicrobachne, Presl.), and is a much more delicate and slender plant than the 
type, which is now plentiful as a naturalised weed in cultivated ground in most 
parts of New Zealand, as in all warm countries.. 
6. OPLISMENUS, Beauv. 
Weak, delicate grasses. Culms decumbent and often rooting at 
the base, branched, ascending above, leafy. Leaves thin, flat, 
broad, ovate to lanceolate. Spikelets 1-flowered, jomted on the 
pedicel, in little clusters on the branches of a simple panicle or 
spike. Glumes 4, the 3 outer membranous, empty or the 3rd with 
a rudimentary palea; the outer short, 3-nerved, with a long straight 
rigid awn; 2nd rather longer, awn short or almost wanting ; 
3rd the largest, 5-nerved, usually awnless; 4th or flowering glume 
rather shorter than the 38rd, lanceolate, firm, smooth, awnless, 
hardened in fruit. Palea coriaceous like the flowering glume. 
Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Grain oblong, enclosed within the 
hardened flowering glume and palea. 
Species probably not more than 4 or 5, widely distributed in the warm 
regions of both hemispheres. 
1. O. undulatifolius, Beawv. Agrost. 54.—Culms prostrate and 
rooting at the base, ascending above, slender, weak, sparingly 
branched, 6-18in. long. Leaves 1-3in. long by +-4in. broad, 
rarely more, lanceolate, acuminate, flat, glabrous or sparsely pilose ; 
sheaths and nodes more or less pilose. Spike slender, 2—4 in. long ; 
