892 GRAMINE. [Danthonia 
13. D. nuda, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 337. —Culms slender, 
tufted, branched at the base, quite glabrous, 3-9in. high. Leaves 
much shorter than the culms, involute, filiform, quite smooth and 
glabrous ; sheaths pale, grooved ; ligules reduced to a band of silky 
hairs. Panicle small, erect, contracted, +-14 in. long, of 5-16 spike- 
lets; branches few, short, pubescent. Spikelets greenish-white, 
small, 1-tin. long, 3-6-flowered. Two outer glumes usually ex- 
ceeding the flowering glumes and awns, subequal, oblong-lanceo- 
late, acute, 83-5-nerved. Flowering glumes short and broad, ovate, 
7-9-nerved, very shortly bifid at the tip, central awn from between 
the lobes, very short, 4} the length of the glume, not twisted at the 
base, a tuft of silky hairs at the base of the glume, and two small 
marginal tufts (sometimes confluent) on each side higher up, back 
of the glume quite glabrous. Palea oblong, shorter than the glume. 
—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 333; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 36a. D. Thom- 
soni, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 36(2). 
Norru Istanp: Mountains near the Kast Coast, Colenso. SourH IsLAND: 
Nelson — Mount Arthur Plateau, 7. F. C. Canterbury — Broken River, 
Petrie! T. F. C.; Poulter River, Cockayne! Lake Tekapo, T. F.C. Otago— 
Kahiku Hills, Buchanan; common in dry places in the eastern and central 
portions of the district, Petrie ! Sea-level to 3500 ft. 
The description given above is based upon South Island specimens, the 
plant not having been observed in the North Island since its original discovery 
by Mr. Colenso sixty years ago. As Hooker’s description does not quite match 
the southern plant, the identity of the two must remain doubtful for the 
present. 
24. ELEUSINE, Gaertn. 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves long, flat or folded, firm 
or membranous. Spikelets 3- to many-flowered, laterally com- 
pressed, sessile and densely imbricate in 2 rows on one side oi 
a flattened rhachis, forming linear spikes; spikes digitately 
arranged or irregularly scattered; rhachilla disarticulating above 
the outer glumes. Two outer glumes shorter than the flowering 
glumes, persistent, empty, unequal, keeled, obtuse or mucronate, 
membranous, 3-5-nerved. Flowering glumes similar to the outer 
glumes, 3-nerved at the base. Palea shorter than the glumes, com- 
plicate and 2-keeled. lLodicules 2, minute. Stamens 3; anthers 
short. Styles short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain broadly 
oblong, grooved ; pericarp lax, hyaline. 
Species 6, most plentiful in tropical Asia and Africa, the one found in the 
New Zealand area a weed in all warm countries. 
1. E. indica, Gaertn. Fruet. i. 8.—Annual. Culms tufted, erect 
or decumbent at the base, branched, stout or slender, compressed, 
quite glabrous, 9-24 in. high. Leaves numerous, distichous, 4-9 in. 
long, 4-4 in. broad, flat, rather flaccid, acuminate; sheaths com- 
pressed, pale, margins ciliate; ligules almost obsolete. Spikes 
