894 GRAMINEA, [Arundo. 
acuminate points, membranous, 1-nerved, usually with a very short 
lateral nerve on each side near the base. Flowering glumes hyaline, 
3-nerved, lower half densely clothed with long silky hairs, deeply 
2-fid at the tip, the divisions produced into bristle-like awns; 
central awn from between the divisions, long, slender, scabrid. 
Palea shorter than the glume, pubescent on the nerves.—Hook. f. 
Fil. Nov. Zel. i. 299; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 331; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, 
t. 27; Bot. Mag. t. 6232. A. australis, A. Rich. Fl. Now. Zel. 121; 
A. Cunn. Precur. n. 265. A. Kakao, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 194. 
Achnatherum conspicuum, Beawv. Agrost. 146. Gynerium zeelandi- 
cum, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 198. Calamagrostis conspicua, Gmel. 
Syst. 172. Agrostis conspicua, Roem. and Schult. Syst. ii. 864; 
A. Eich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 127; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 250; Raoul, 
Chorx, 39. 
NortH AND SoutH IsnANDs, STEWART Is~tAND, CHATHAM ISLANDS: 
Abundant throughout in damp lowland situations. Toetoe-Kakaho ; culms of, 
Kakaho. 
The largest grass in the colony, forming a very characteristic feature of the 
vegetation in all swampy tracts, river-banks, sandhills, &c. The culms were 
formerly largely used by the Maoris for lining their meeting-houses, and were 
often dyed in elaborate patterns. 
2. A. fulvida, Buch. im Trans. N.Z. Inst. vi. (1874) 242.—Habit 
and general appearance of A. conspicua, but rather smaller, culms 
seldom more than 6it. high. Panicle pale-fulvous, usually more 
compact, broader and more erect, 1-2ft. long. Spikelets 1-3- 
flowered. Two outer glumes shorter, +—-2in. long, not drawn out 
into such long points, and usually considerably shorter than the 
awns of the flowering glumes. Flowering glumes not so deeply 
bifid at the tip, the divisions scarcely awned; central awn exserted 
beyond the outer glumes.—N.Z. Grasses, t. 28. A. conspicua var. 
fulvida, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. App. xliii. 
NortH anp SourH Isuanps: From the Bay of Islands to Foveaux Strait, 
not nearly so abundant as A. conspicua. 
This does not differ from A. conspicua except in the outer glumes not 
including the awns of the flowering glumes, and in the terminal lobes of the 
flowering glumes being shorter and scarcely awned. It would probably be 
better treated as an extreme form of A. conspicua than as a separate species. 
The widely distributed Phragmites communis, Trin., the common Reed of 
Europe, has been recorded by Baron Mueller as a native of New Zealand on the 
strength of a specimen said to have been collected by Dr. Haast at the Grey 
River, Westland (Veg. Chath. Is. 61). But it has not been collected by any 
other explorer, and there are no native specimens in any New Zealand her- 
barium. Probably Dr. Haast’s specimen was not truly indigenous. Phragmites 
can be distinguished from Arwndo by the lowermost flower of the spikelet being 
male, and by the flowering glume being glabrous, the long silky hairs being con- 
fined to the rhachilla. 
