Order GRAMINEfiE. 
Genus Triticum. 
Sub-Order Hordeacea:. 
Genus XXV.—TRITICUM, Linneaeus. 
Spikelets spiked, solitary, distichous, and alternately sessile on a compressed rachis, 3- or several-flowered. 
Empty glumes 2, shorter than the flowering, unequal, rigid. Flowering glume rigid, concave, 3—7- 
nerved, obtuse, acute or awned. Palea 2-nerved, nerves ciliate. Stamens 3. Ovary crowned at the 
top with a glutinous mass of hairs. Styles apparently lateral. Grain grooved in front, adherent 
to the palea. Distribution op Genus : TEMPERATE CLIMATES OF BOTH HEMIS¬ 
PHERES. Etymology : The generic name for wheat. 
1.—TRITICUM MULTIFLORUM. 
SHORT-AWNED WHEAT GRASS. 
{Plate LFI. B.) 
Triticum multiflorum, Banks and Sol. Hook, fil., FI. N.Z., I., 311. 
Triticum multiflorum, Banks and Sol. Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. FI. 
A robust, tufted, blueish-green grass. Flowers December—March. Annual or perennial. Culms 
erect, prostrate at the base, 1—2 feet high, striate, glabrous. Leaves 3—6 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—io-flowered, 1 inch long. Empty glumes narrow, unequal, acuminate, 3-nerved. 
Flowering glume much longer, acuminate, bifid 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. Distribution 
of Species : NEW ZEALAND. 
A scattered grass, seldom abundant, being generally found in distant tufts, which readily attract 
notice by their peculiar blueish-green colour among the darker coloured vegetation. This is a grass, 
when in flower, better adapted for cattle than sheep, as the stout culms and spikes offer only a coarse 
