I 66 TRITICUM SCABRUM. 



exhausted and dies, and may be considered as an annual, although the species may 

 be continued on the same ground from shaken seed. This is undoubtedly the 

 theory of certain supposed perennial grasses, such as Lolium perrene proving 

 sometimes annual, and such grasses can only be secured perennial, by cutting 

 or grazing down the flowering stems for one or more years, till each seedling plant 

 has thown out numerous stoles from the root before ripening any seed, by which 

 time a thick close sward has been formed. Some grasses again, such as Dactylus 

 glomeratus, require no such attention, possessing as they do, an inherent tendency 

 to delay the process of flowering and seeding for some years, by which time each 

 seed has formed fa small tussac, and by their confluence a close sward, thus 

 proving a true perennial grass. In the South Island, the species under notice, 

 Triticum scabrum, was considered by the early settlers as a good grass for horses 

 and cattle, and was known by them as the " blue tussac grass," or "blue oat grass, " 

 a pardonable error in the latter name, the spikes being more like oats than wheat. 

 A very marked variety of this species has been figured here under the name Triticum 

 scabrum, var. tenue. This grass is abundant in some of the inland districts of 

 Nelson and Canterbury. It is a weak elongated form, 3 4 feet long, and often 

 trailing on the ground ; other varieties exist of less importance, varying in the 

 size of the spikelet and amount of scabridity. All the varieties, if cut in flower, 

 make excellent fodder grasses. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND : ABUNDANT 

 IN BOTH ISLANDS. 



Reference to Plate LVII. A. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4, 4'. 

 Nervation of empty glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation of 

 Palea. 7. Scale. 8, 8\ 8". Grain, front, side, and section views. 



Reference to Plate LVII. B. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4, 4'. 

 Nervation of empty glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation of 

 Palea. 7. Scale . 8. Section of ovary, showing the position of the styles. 



