Stupa.] GRAMINEA. 857 
entire or minutely 2-lobed tip, with a long terminal geniculate awn 
often spirally twisted below the bend. Palea 2-nerved, enclosed 
within the flowering glume. Lodicules usually 3, large. Stamens 
3, seldom fewer. Styles distinct, rather short. Grain narrow, 
terete, tightly enclosed by the hardened flowering glume and 
palea. 
A genus of over 100 species, spread over the temperate and tropical regions 
of both hemispheres. Two of the New Zealand species extend to Australia, the 
third is endemic. 
Tall, 2-5ft. Panicle 1-24 ft., lax, nodding. Spikelets 
minute, ;,-4in. Stamen 1 fe as .. 1. S. arundinacea. 
Densely tufted, 1-3ft. Leaves long, terete. Panicle 
4-9 in., narrow, strict, erect. Spikelets #in. .. .. 2. S. teretifolia. 
Tufted, 1-2ft. Leaves short, filiform. Panicle 4-Sin., 
lax, erect. Spikelets}in. .. 3c Be -. 93d S. setacea. 
1. S. arundinacea, Benth. in Journ. Linn. Soc. xix. (1881) 81.— 
Rhizomes short, creeping, scaly. Culms very densely tufted, tall, 
erect, nodding, rigid, quite glabrous, 2-5 ft. high. Leaves from the © 
distant nodes of the culms, the lowermost reduced to appressed 
sheaths, upper 6-12in. long, 4-1in. broad, coriaceous, flat or 
involute, margins and midrib slightly scaberulous; sheaths very 
long, closely appressed, finely ciliate along the margins; lgules 
short, truncate. Panicles very large and lax, nodding, 1-24 it. 
long ; rhachis very slender, glabrous ; branches in distant whorls of 
5-8, capillary. again compound, spreading, finely scaberulous, 
3-6in. long. Spikelets minute, ;4,-}in. long, greenish-purple. Two 
outer glumes almost equal, lanceolate, acuminate, membranous, 
scaberulous along the keel, lower 1-nerved, upper 3-nerved ; 3rd or 
flowering glume much shorter, sessile on a short glabrous callus, 
rigid, convolute, pubescent towards the tip; awn slender, scabrid, 
deciduous, about +in. long. Palea linear - oblong, 2-nerved. 
Stamen 1.—Apera arundinacea, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 295, t. 67; 
Handd. N.Z. Fl. 326; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t.17. A. purpurascens, 
Col. im Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1889) 106. 
North anp Sour Isuanps: Auckland—Hast Cape, Bishop Williams. 
Hawke’s Bay —Petane, A. Hamilton! Dannevirke and Cape Turnagain, 
Colenso! Wellington—Wairarapa, Buchanan! South Karori, Kirk. Nelson 
—Foxhill, Wangapeka, 7. #. C. Marlborough—Pelorus Valley, Rutland ! 
Canterbury—Akaroa, Raoul, Kirk! Otago—Near Dunedin, Buchanan! Petrie! 
G. M. Thomson ! Horse Ranges and Kaitangata, Petrie. Sea-level to 1500 it. 
A very handsome species. It is closely allied to S. verticillata, Nees 
(Streptachne ramosissima, Trin.), an Australian species which is often grown in 
gardens, and which has established itself in several localities, but which differs 
in the rather larger spikelets with a much longer persistent awn, and in having 
3 stamens. 
2. S. teretifolia, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 128.—Culms densely 
tufted, forming large tussocks, rigid, erect, smooth and polished, 
quite glabrous, 14-3 ft. high. Leaves longer or shorter than the 
