860 GRAMINE®, [Alopecurus. 
high. Leaves short, soft, flat, 4-tin. broad; upper sheaths long, 
grooved, more or less inflated; ligules long, membranous. Spike 
1-2in. long, +-4in. broad, dense, cylindric, greenish-yellow ; 
branches short, the ultimate ones bearing a single spikelet. Spike- 
lets numerous, closely imbricating, much compressed, ;4,-4 in. long. — 
Two outer glumes slightly connate at the base, obtuse or subacute, 
membranous, pubescent, ciliate along the keel; 3rd or flowering 
glume rather shorter than the empty ones, thin, convolute, trun- 
cate and erose at the tip; awn slender, not twice the length of the 
glume, almost basal, straight or recurved. Anthers linear, orange- 
yellow.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 290; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 321; 
Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 555; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 5. 
Norru Istanp: Auckland—Lower Waikato, H. Carse! East Cape dis- 
trict, Bishop Williams! WHawke’s Bay—Colenso! Wellington—Wairarapa, 
Buchanan! near Wellington, Kirk! SourH Istanp: Not uncommon in 
marshy places throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Marsh Foztail. 
An abundant grass in marshy places in most temperate regions. The allied 
species A. pratensis (Meadow Foxtail) and A. agrestis (Slender Foxtail), descrip- 
tions of which will be found in any British flora, have become naturalised in 
several localities in both Islands. 
15. SPOROBOLUS, R. Br. 
Annual or perennial grasses, of very various habit. Leaves flat 
or convolute. Spikelets small, often minute, 1-flowered, awniess, 
arranged in a narrow spike-like or effuse panicle; rhachilla very 
short, obscurely jointed above the 2 outer glumes, not produced 
beyond the flower or very rarely so. Glumes 3, membranous, 
nerveless or 1-3-nerved; 2 outer unequal, empty, persistent or 
separately deciduous; 3rd or flowering glume longer than or equal- 
ling the 2nd. Palea usually almost as long as the flowering glume, 
2-nerved, often splitting between the nerves. lLodicules 2, small. 
Stamens 2-3. Styles short, distinct. Grain free within the flower- 
ing glume and palea; the pericarp lax, usually deciduous. 
Species about 80, dispersed through the tropical and subtropical regions of 
both hemispheres, but most numerous in America. 
1. S. indicus, R. Br. Prodr. 170.—Perennial. Culms tufted, 
stout, rigid, perfectly glabrous, 1-2 ft. high. Leaves mostly at the 
base of the culms and shorter than them, 4-12 in. long, ,},-¢in. 
broad, usually involute, tapering to a fine point, glabrous, margins 
smooth; sheaths pale, compressed, often ciliate on the margins; 
ligules reduced to a ciliate rim. Panicle erect, spike-like, very 
narrow, 3-9 in. long, sometimes interrupted below; branches short, 
crowded, erect and appressed to the rhachis. Spikelets very 
numerous, crowded, din. long. Two outer glumes unequal, the 
lowest not much more than one-half the length of the 2nd, hyaline, 
nerveless, or the 2nd 1-nerved; 3rd or fiowering glume nearly twice 
