Order GRAMINE/E. 



2. MICROL.ENA AVENACEA. 



BUSH RICE GRASS. 

 (Plate III.) 



DIPLAX AVENACEA, Raoul, Choix des Plantes, p. u, t. 3. Fl. N.Z., 

 I., 289. MICROL/EXA AVENACEA, Hook. fil. Handb. N.Z. Flora, I., 320. 



A TALL handsome grass, growing at low elevations. Flowers December 

 March. Perennial. Root fibrous, wiry. Stems 2 4 feet high, 

 densely tufted, compressed and leafy at the base, forming tussacs of 

 erect drooping leaves. Leaves 18 24 inches long, J J-inch broad; 

 margins scabrid. Ligule very short, obtuse, entire, or lacerate ; mouth 

 of the sheath with silky hairs. Panicle glabrous, pale-coloured, 10 15 

 inches long, with many long capillary branches. Spikelets on capillary 

 pedicels |-inch long, awns included. Empty glumes, lower pair very 

 minute, unequal, persistent ; upper pair close to the last, with long awns, 

 7 -nerved. Florae ring glume acuminate or blunt, with a short awn, 

 y-nerved. Palea narrow, linear, acuminate, i-nerved. Scales large, 

 waved on the upper margin, and nerved at bottom. Stamens 2. 

 Anthers long, narrow. Styles nearly connate at the base. Stigmas 

 penicillate, longer than the styles. Grain long narrow. DISTRIBUTION 

 OF SPECIES : NEW ZEALAND. 



Common in forest lands, and usually found there in small tussacs, which, by 

 their confluence, often form large patches of a close, harsh sward, especially in the 

 more open places. This grass is greedily eaten by cattle during winter, when it 

 then becomes valuable in supplementing the more nutritious leaf food from certain 

 trees, such as Karaka (Corynocarpus laviyata), Mahoe (MellcytUB raittijlorins), and 

 several others which form their chief food during that season in many places. 

 This species can hardly be recommended for cultivation, as in open country it 

 would very probably become harsher and less succulent ; but settlers living in the 

 neighbourhood of forests would be repaid the trouble of collecting seed and sowing 

 it among the trees, and by that means increasing the amount of winter food for 

 their cattle. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND : NORTH AND SOUTH ISLANDS ; 

 abundant in forests. 



