Order G 



GENUS IX. ZOYSIA, Willdenow. 



Spikelets few (i io), p sessile, or shortly pedicelled, alternate, and imbri- 

 cating on a stiff, erect, flattened flexuous rachis. Empty glume i, 

 mucronate or awned. Flowering glume solitary, included. Palea 

 membranous or none. Scales o. Stamens 3. Ovary oblong. Styles 

 short, terminal. Stigmas long, feathery. Grain free. DISTRIBUTION 

 OF GENUS : INDIA, MAURITIUS, CHINA, AUSTRALIA, NEW 

 ZEALAND. Etymology : Named in honor of Baron Charles de Zoys, 

 a Carniolian ecclesiastic, and collector of plants. 



1. ZOYSIA PUNGENS. 



(Plate XII L A.) 



ZOYSIA PUNGENS, Willd. ; R. Brown, Prod. 208 ; F. Muell, Fragm. VIII. 

 1 1 6 j Benth. Fl. Hongk. 418. ROTTBOELLIA UNIFLORA, A. Cunningham. 

 ZOYSIA PUNGENS. Willdenow. Hook. fil. Fl. N.Z., I., 312 ; Handb. N.Z. 

 Flora, L, 324. 



A SMALL, creeping, rigid, usually littoral grass. Culms branched, i 3 

 inches high, tufted, glabrous. Flowers December January. Perennial. 

 Roots wiry, striking downwards from the prostrate rhizome. Leaves erect 

 or spreading, filiform or subulate, involute, i 4 inches long ; sheaths 

 tumid, grooved ; ligule o. Spike \ |-inch long, often reduced to a 

 solitary spikelet. Spikelets h |-inch long, shortly pedicelled. Empty 

 glume ovoid, convolute, rigid, very coriaceous, glabrous, tip produced to 

 a short awn, 7 -nerved. Flowering glume solitary, sessile, included, 

 membranous, convolute, T -nerved. Palea o. Stamens 3, large. Ovary 

 sessile, glabrous. Grain long, narrow. DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES: 

 THE SAME AS THE GENUS. 



A grass of considerable value on littoral swamps and dry flats near the sea. 

 According to Kirk, "It is found sometimes forming a compact turf on dry land, 

 and affording a large supply of succulent herbage for horses, cattle, and sheep." 



