Alopecurus. | GRAMINEAE. 151 
14. ALOPECURUS Linn. '732° 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets strongly laterally 
compressed, 1-flowered, densely crowded in a cylindric spike-like panicle, 
articulated on the top of the very short pedicels. Glumes 3; the 2 outer 
subequal, often connate below, sharply keeled, acute or obtuse, not awned, 
often fringed on the keels; 3rd or flowering glume about as long as the 
outer glumes, convolute, hyaline, usually with a slender bent dorsal awn. 
Palea generally wanting. Lodicules absent. Stamens 2 or 3. Styles 
distinct or connate. Grain laterally compressed, free within the flowering 
sluine and palea. 
Species about 20, in the temperate and cool regions of both hemispheres, several 
of them excellent fodder-grasses. The single New Zealand species is widely distributed. 
E? ). A. geniculatus Linn. Sp. Plant. (1753) 60.—Culms creeping and 
rooting at the base, erect above, rather slender, glabrous, 9-18in. high. 
Leaves short, soft, flat, 1-4in. broad; upper sheaths long, grooved, more 
or less inflated; ligules long, membranous. Spike 1-2in. long, $-3 in. 
broad, dense, cylindric, greenish-yellow; branches short, the ultimate 
s : ale DD he OS end aaron plasaly imbricating, 
sonnate at 
Alopecurus geniculatus, Linn. along the 
——— ones, thin, 
twice the 
not native to N.Z. see T.N.2Z,1. yers linear, 
_ Fi. (1864) 
JNO TH TSUAND 2 AUURIAMILU UU UL YY Warwury, 2458 Vives mewn one antnanpy tO ¥, r, C,. , 
East Cape district, Bishop Williams! Hawke’s Bay—Oolenso! Wellington—Waira- 
rapa, Buchanan! near Wellington, 7’. Kirk! Soutu Istanpd: Not uncommon in marshy 
places throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Marsh Foxtail. 
An abundant grass in marshy places in most temperate regions. The allied 
species A. pratensis (Meadow Foxtail) and A. agrestis (Slender Foxtaii), descriptions of 
which will be found in any British Flora, have become naturalized in several localities 
in both Islands. 
15. SPOROBOLUS R. Br. \% 10 
Annual or perennial grasses, of very various habit. Leaves flat or 
convolute. Spikelets small. often minute 1-flawered  awnless arranged 
bscurely 
‘ 1 ower or 
Sporobolus indicus, RBr. ans 
ig glume 
not native to N.Z. see T.N.2.1. : as the 
icules 2, 
vol. 57, p. 68. (Ckn. & Allan). e flower- 
3 of both 
mispheres, but most numerous in America. 
ae 1. S. indicus R. Br. Prodr. (1810) 170—Perennial. Culms tufted, 
stout, rigid, perfectly glabrous, 1-2 ft. high. Leaves mostly at the base 
of the culms and shorter than them, 4-12 in. long, #y-in. broad, usually 
S$ cabeusn Rinne. Eun. Ph yp: Az: \W23% 
See M2 alowr. Sc & eA TRurasy + 2se 
