Oplismenus. | GRAMINEAE. 141 
6. OPLISMENUS Beauv. 
Weak, delicate grasses. Culms decumbent and often rooting at the 
base, branched, ascending above, leafy. Leaves thin, flat, broad, ovate to 
lanceolate. Spikelets 1-flowered, jointed on the pedicel, in little clusters 
on the branches of a simple panicle or spike. Glumes 4, the 3 outer 
membranous, empty or the 3rd with a rudimentary palea; the outer short, 
3-nerved, with a long straight rigid awn; 2nd rather longer, awn short or 
almost wanting; 3rd the largest, 5-nerved, usually awnless ; 4th or flowering 
glume rather shorter than the 3rd, lanceolate, firm, smooth, awnless, 
hardened in fruit. Palea coriaceous like the flowering glume. Stamens 3. 
Styles distinct. Grain oblong, enclosed within the hardened flowering glume 
and palea. 
Species probably not more than 4 or 5, widely distributed in the warm regions of 
both hemispheres. Pe adi te oe tt er4 
Yur , - - 
pec NN) ow. ois 
- 
1. O. undulatifolius Beawy. Agrost. (1812) 54——Culms prostrate and 
rooting at the base, ascending above, slender, weak, sparingly branched, 
6-18 in. long. Leaves 1-3 in. long by }-4 in. broad, rarely more, lanceolate, 
acuminate, flat, glabrous or sparsely pilose; sheaths and nodes more or 
less pilose. Spike slender, 2-4in. long; rhachis glabrous or pilose with 
spreading hairs. Spikelets small, 7-4 in. long, in distant sessile clusters 
of 2-6 or the uppermost solitary, sometimes the lower clusters are produced 
into a short spike-like branch. Empty glumes 3, concave, membranous, 
nerved, pilose, the lower one with a stout rigid awn 1-3 in. long. Flowering 
glume pale, coriaceous, nerveless, shining.—Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 
848. 0. setarius Roem. and Schult. Syst. i (1817) 481; Benth. Fl. Austral. 
vii (1878) 492. O. aemulus Kunth Rev. Gram. i (1829) 44; Hook. f. Fl. 
Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 292. Orthopogon aemulus R. Br. Prodr, (1810) 194. 
Panicum imbecille Trin. Sp. Gram. (1823-36) t. 191; Hook. f. Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. (1864) 323. Hekaterosachne elatior Steud. Syn. Plant. Gram. 
(1855) 118. Lm ly Crane, “VAC Sohws (Ara) Omnrnorn~o 
-. A.W. 2 CITMGe) 
KerrmapEc Istanps, Nort Istanp: Abundant throughout in shaded lowland 
stations. SourH Istanp: Recorded from Nelson (Travers) and Canterbury (Lyall), but 
I have seen no specimens. wal ~ee C.-Y uwsi§'14ego ¢ hex 
An abundant plant in all warm climates, and barely distinct from the widely diffused 
O. compositus Beauy. 
7. CENCHRUS Linn. * ’ 37 
Annual or perennial grasses, usually tall. Leaves flat, flaccid. Spike- 
lets narrow, with a single terminal hermaphrodite flower with or without 
a male flower below it, enclosed i-4 together in an ovoid or globose 
involucre of numerous bristles or spines, the inner of which are broad and 
flattened, connate at the base and hardened in fruit ; the involucres sessile 
in a terminal spike or raceme, and deciduous with the spikelets. Glumes 
4: the outer much the smallest, sometimes minute, empty; 2nd equalling 
the 3rd or a little shorter, empty ; 3rd usually containing a palea and some- 
times 3 stamens; 4th or flowering glume rather shorter than the 5rd and 
more rigid. Stamens 3. Styles often connate at the base. Grain enclosed 
in the flowering glume and palea, free from them. 
Species about 12, in the warm regions of both hemispheres and in temperate North 
America. 
