Alopecurus. | GRAMINEAE, 151 
14. ALOPECURUS Linn. '73<" 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets strongly laterally 
compressed, 1-flowered, densely crowded in a cylindric spike-hke 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 ; 8rd 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 
gluine 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? 1. A. geniculatus Linn. Sp. Plant. (1753) 60.—Culms creeping and 
rooting at the base, erect pane. rather slender, glabrous, 9-18 in. high. 
Leaves short, soft, flat, 4 3—g 1m. broad ; upper sheaths long, preoret, oo 
or less inflated ; ; hgules long, membranous. Spike 1-2 in. long, +-4 
broad, dense, cylindric, greenish-yellow; branches short, the ‘atacats 
ones bearing a egle See Spikelets numerous, closely imbricating, 
much compressed, =4,-$in. long. Two outer glumes slightly connate at 
the base, obtuse or subacute, membranous, pubescent, ciliate along the 
keel ; 8rd or flowering elume rather shorter than the empty ones, “thin, 
convolute, truncate and erose at the tip; awn slender, not twice the 
length of the glume, almost basal, straight or recurved, Anthers linear, 
orange-yellow.—Hook. jf. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 290; Handb. N.Z. FI. (1864) 
321; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii (1878) 555; Buch. N.Z. Grasses (1879) t. 5; 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 859. 
Nortu Istanp : Auckland—Lower Waikato, H. Carse! Lake Whangape, 7’. F. C. ; 
East Cape district, Bishop Williams! Hawke’s Bay—Colenso /) Wellington—Waira- 
rapa, Buchanan! near Wellington, 7. Kirk! Souru Istanp : Not uncommon in marshy 
places throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Marsh Fozxtail. 
An abundant grass in marshy places in most temperate regions. The allied 
species A. pratensis (Meadow Foxtail) and A. agrestis (Slender Foxtail), 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-flowered, awnless, arranged 
in a narrow spike-like or effuse panicle; rhachilla very short, obscurely 
jointed above the 2 outer glumes, not produced beyond the flower or 
very rarely so. Glumes 3, membranous, nerveless or 1—3-nerved ; 2 outer 
unequal, empty, persistent or separately deciduous ; 3rd or flowering glume 
longer than or equalling the 2nd. Palea usually almost as long as the 
flowering glume, 2-nerved, often splitting between the nerves. Lodicules 2 
small. Stamens 2-3. Styles short, distinct. Grain free within the flower- 
ing glume and palea; the pericarp lax, usually deciduous. 
Species about 80, dispersed through the tropical and subtropical regions of both 
mispheres, but most numerous in America. 
& ¥. 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, 4-12in. long, #s-Lin. broad, usually 
S. <abeusn Kenn. En PI iano: 123% 
See ee mar, OC. & yee. IS. 1OSy - aed 
