Order GRAMINIE^. 

 Genus, Triticum; Sub-Order, Hordeaccn'. 



GENUS XXV. TRITICUM, Linnaeus. 



Spikelets spiked, solitary, distichous and alternately sessile on a com- 

 pressed rachis, 3 or several flowered. Empty glumes 2, shorter than the 

 flowering, unequal, rigid. Flowering glume rigid, concave, 37 nerved, 

 obtuse, acute or awned. Palea 2-nerved, nerves ciliate. Stamens 3. 

 Ovary crowned at the top with a glutinous mass of hairs. Stvles 

 apparently lateral. Grain grooved in front, adherent to the palea. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF GENUS : TEMPERATE CLIMATES OF BOTH 

 HEMISPHERES. Etymology : The generic name for wheat. 



1. TRITICUM MULTIFLORUM. 



SHORT AWNED WHEAT GRASS. 

 (Plate LVL, B.) 



TRITICUM MULTIFLORUM, Banks and Sol, Hook, fil., Fl. N.Z., I., 311. 

 TRITICUM MULTIFLORUM, Banks and Sol., Hook, fil., Handb. Fl. N.Z. 



A ROBUST, tufted, blueish-green grass. Flowers December March. 

 Annual or Perennial. Culms erect, prostrate at the base, i 2 feet 

 high, striate, glabrous. Leaves 36 inches long, narrow, flat, rough on 

 the upper surface, sheathing leaves short, striate, ligule o. Spike 2 8 

 inches long. Spikelets 6 12 and 6 10 flowered, J i inch long. 

 Empty glumes narrow, unequal, acuminate, 3-nerved. Flowering glume 

 much longer, acuminate, bind at the top, with a very short scabrid awn, 

 5-nerved. Palea obtuse, 2-nerved. Scale oblique, shortly ciliate. 

 Ovary crowned on the top with a mass of glutinous hairs, which 

 hardens and scales off from the grain. Styles connected below. DIS- 

 TRIBUTION OF SPECIES : NEW ZEALAND. 



A scattered grass, seldom abundant, being generally found in distant tufts, 

 which readily attract notice, by their peculiar blueish-grecn colour, among the 

 darker coloured vegetation. This is a grass, when in flower, better adapted for 



