8 
INTRODUCTION. 
ARTIFICIAL KEY TO THE GENERA REPRESENTED IN NEW ZEALAND. 
A. Spikelets on the spines of globose, polygamous, involucrate heads. 5. Spinifex. 
B. Spikelets sessile, in 1 or 2 series, on one or both sides of a flattened rachis. Empty glumes 0 or 1-3. 
Empty glumes 2 or 3, short; flowering solitary, hard ... ... ... ... 6. Paspalum. 
Empty glume 1, margins connate; flowering solitary, Palea 0 ... ... ... 9. Zoysia. 
Empty glumes 2, lanceolate; flowering 3-16 awned ... ... ... ... 25. Triticum. 
Empty glume 0, or 2 bristles; flowering 1-3 awned ... ... ... ... 26. Gymnostichum. 
G. Spikelets never sessile and distichous, pedicelled, panicled or racemed. 
I. Empty glumes 3 or more, below the solitary hermaphrodite floivering 
Glumes 5 : 4 empty, acuminate, 1 flowering, obtuse 
Glumes 5 : 2 empty, minute, 2 empty, awned, 1 flowering, acuminate 
Glumes 4 short, obtuse : 2 empty, 1 male, upper hermaphrodite ... 
Glumes 4, mucronate or awned : 2 empty, 1 male, upper hermaphrodite 
one. 
1. Ehrharta. 
2. Microlama 
8. Isachne. 
7. Panicum. 
II. Empty glumes 2, below the solitary flowering one. 
(a.) Panicle dense, cglindric, spike-like (see Poa anceps and Danthonia in III.) 
Empty glumes equal, flattened, Palea 0, Panicle soft, spiciform ... ... ... 3. Alopecurus. 
Empty glumes rigid, acuminate, Panicle reduced to an ovoid, spinulose head ... ... 10. Echinopogon. 
(b.) Panicle effuse or contracted. 
Flowering glume on a bearded pedicel, tip bifid, awned 
Flowering glume pedicelled, ending in a long rigid awn 
Flowering glume sessile, short, acute ; seed loose in pericarp . . 
Flowering glume sessile, truncate, awned at hack or awnless 
Flowering glume pedicelled, with a short dorsal awn 
Flowering glume rigid, rolled round the flower, awn bent and articulated 
11. Dichelachne. 
12. Apera. 
13. Sporobolus. 
14. Agrostis. 
14 3 . Deyeuxia. 
12 3 . Stipa. 
III. Empty glumes 2, below the 2- or more-flowering ones. Floivering glumes rarely 1 in Poa, Danthonia, and 
Deschampsia. 
(a.) Flowering glumes awned, sometimes awnless in Hierochloe (see Festuca in b). 
Flowering glumes 2-5, silky; awn at the bifid tip, slender 
Flowering glumes 2—8, 2 cuspidate, with stout dorsal awn, and long hairs on sides and 
at base 
Flowering glumes 2—4, silky at base, 3-awned, middle one longest ... 
Flowering glumes 2 or 3, shining, truncate, or 4-toothed 
Flowering glumes 3, shining, obtuse, 2 lateral male flowers 3-androus, central flower, male 
and female, 2-androus 
Flowering glumes 3—7, shining, bifid, with a short obtuse awn or 0; Panicle spiciform ... 
Flowering glumes 4—10, bifid, with an intermediate awn; ovary villous at top 
15. Arundo. 
16. Danthonia. 
19. Trisetum. 
17. Deschampsia. 
4. Hierochloe. 
18. Koeleria. 
24. Bromus. 
(b.) Flowering glumes not awned except in some Festucas (see Hierochloe and Koeleria in a). 
Flowering glumes 6-14, short, obtuse, green, scales connate ... ... ... 20. Glyceria. 
Flowering glumes 2, short, truncate, erose, membranous ... ... ... 21. Catabrosa. 
Flowering glumes 2-10, compressed, keeled, obtuse or acute ... ... ... 22. Poa. 
Flowering glumes 2-10, convex or keeled at back, often awned at the entire tip ... 23. Festuca. 
(e.) Remarks on the Distribution of Grasses in New Zealand. 
The distribution of the species of grasses is controlled by many circumstances, of which the most obvious 
are the following : The amount of rainfall and the degree of moisture of the atmosphere, the average and 
extreme temperatures, altitude and distance from the influence of the sea-coast, and the mineral composition and 
mechanical condition of the surface-soil. 
Thus in New Zealand we find that, out of the eighty-seven species, twenty-eight only have a general 
distribution, and take part in forming the pasture which covers the plains, terraces, and hill-slopes of the 
valuable pastoral areas :— 
