850 . GRAMINE:. [Cenchrus. 
rather shorter and broader than the 3rd, 3-nerved; 3rd with a palea 
and male flower, 5-7-nerved; 4th or flowering glume rather 
shorter and narrower, firmer in texture.—Cheesem mm Trans. N.Z. 
Inst. xx. (1888) 175. C. anomoplexis, Lab. Sert. Austr. Caled. 14, 
rag oS 
KerMabDeEc Istanps: Sandy soil on the north side of Sunday Island, not 
common, 7’. F.C. Also a native of New Caledonia and others of the Pacific 
islands. 
8. SPINIFEX, Linn. 
Usually wide-creeping hard and stout branching grasses. Leaves 
long, involute, silky. Inflorescence dicecious. Male spikelets 
2-flowered, sessile or shortly pedicelled, articulate on long erect 
spikes which are arranged in umbels surrounded by leafy spatha- 
ceous bracts. Glumes 4, all membranous, awnless; 2 lowest 
empty; 3rd and 4th each with a palea and 3 stamens. Female 
spikelets 1- or rarely 2-flowered, numerous, each one solitary at the 
base of long rigid pungent stellately spreading spines, surrounded by 
short lanceolate bracts, the whole inflorescence forming a large 
globose head. Glumes 4, subequal, narrow ; 2 lowest empty; 3rd 
With a palea and sometimes with a rudimentary male flower ; 
4th with a female flower. Lodicules 2, large. Styles long, free; 
stigmas plumose. Grain free within the hardened flowering 
glume and palea. 
A small genus of 4 species, 3 of which are found in Australia, one of them 
extending to New Zealand and New Caledonia, the fourth stretching from 
Ceylon and India to Java, China, and Japan. 
1. S. hirsutus, Labill. Pl. Nov. Holl. ui. 81, t. 230, 231.—Stems 
creeping and rooting, branched, often many feet long, stout, knotted, 
silky or woolly. Leaves 1-2 ft. long, coriaceous, flexuous, densely 
clothed with soft silky hairs, margins strongly involute; sheaths 
long, broad, the inner smooth and shining ; ligules split into a dense 
brush of erect silky hairs. Male spikes numerous, 2-4in. long, 
arranged in a terminal umbel, with or without a cluster of 2-3 
placed lower down the culm. Spikelets about fin. long. Glumes 
silky, 5-7-nerved. Female heads large, giobose, 6-12in. diam. ; 
spines very numerous, spreading all round, slender, subulate, 
pungent-pointed. Spikelets very narrow, acute or acuminate, in. 
long. Glumes 7-9-nerved.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1. 292; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 322; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 503; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, 
t. 8, 9. S. sericeus, #. Br. Prodr. 198; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 
122; A. Cunn. Precur. nu. 268; Raoul, Chow, 40. Ixalum inerme, 
Forst. Prodr. n. 564. 
Norru Istanp: Abundant on sandhills near the sea. SourH ISLAND: 
Nelson—Sandy shores of Blind Bay, 7. F#. C.; Cape Farewell, H. H. Travers. 
Canterbury—Tvravers, Armstrong. 
