Sporobolus. | GRAMINES. 861 
as long as the 2nd, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 1-3-nerved. Palea 
almost as long as the flowering glume. Stamens usually 2. Grain 
oboyoid or roughly quadrangular, reddish; pericarp thin.— Benth. 
Fl. Austral, vii. 622. 8. elongatus, #. Br. Prodr. 170; Hook. f. Fl. 
Nov. Zel. i. 295; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 327; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 18. 
NorruH anp SourH Isuanps: Lowland districts from the North Cape to 
Nelson and Marlborough, abundant, especially in the northern part of the North 
Island. Ratstal. 
A common grass in all warm countries. Although now presenting all the 
appearance of a true native, it is certainly introduced into New Zealand. 
Bishop Williams informs me that it made its first appearance at the Bay of 
Islands in 1840, shortly after the arrival of a ship called the ‘‘ Surabayo,”’ which, 
while on a voyage from Valparaiso to Sydney, laden with horses and forage, put 
into the Bay of Islands in a disabled state, and was there condemned and her 
cargo sold. Hrigeron canadensis and other weeds appeared at the same time. 
16. SIMPLICIA, T. Kirk. 
A slender decumbent grass. Leaves flat. Spikelets minute, 
1-flowered, solitary and pedicelled on the branches of a slender 
panicle ; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes, pro- 
duced above the flower into a minute bristle. Glumes 3; 2 outer 
minute, unequal, empty, hyaline, persistent; 3rd or flowering 
clume much longer than the outer glumes, oblong-lanceolate, 
acuminate or shortly awned, keeled, obscurely 1—3-nerved. Palea 
almost as long as the flowering glume, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2. 
Stamens 1-2. Styles distinct; stigmas shortly plumose. Grain 
oblong, free within the flowering glume and palea. 
A peculiar monotypic genus, endemic in New Zealand. Professor Hackel 
considers it to be intermediate between Sporobolus and Agrostis, differing 
from the former in the rhachilla being produced beyond the flower, and from the 
latter in the minute unequal empty glumes, large palea, &c. Mr. Kirk com- 
pared it to Mwhlenbergia. 
iessiaxa, 1. Kirk in Trans, N.Z, Inst. xxix. (1897), 497.— 
Culms weak, decumbent, very slender, filiform, 8-i8in. long. 
Leaves 1-4in. long by ;4-+in. broad, flat, flaccid, glabrous or 
minutely ciliate along the nerves; sheaths long, glabrous or 
pubescent ; ligule long, membranous. Panicle very slender, narrow, 
2-6 in. long; rhachis filiform; branches few, filiform, erect, smooth 
or minutely scaberulous. Spikelets lanceolate, pale-green, about 
zzin. long. Two outer glumes minute, unequal, glabrous, the 
lower % the length of the upper, which is + the length of the flower- 
ing glume; 3rd or flowering glume acuminate or shortly awned, 
pubescent with short stiff erect hairs. Palea almost as long as 
the flowering glume, acute, pubescent. Ripe grain not seen. 
_ Norru Jstanp: Wellington—Dry River, Ruamahanga, Lower Wairarapa, 
Kirk! Souru Isuanp: Otago—Deep Stream, Waikouaiti, Petrie ! 
