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152 \ : GRAMENEAE, | Sporobolus. 
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involute, tapering to a fine point, glabrous, margins smooth ; sheaths pale, 
compressed, often ciliate on the margins ; ligules reduced to a ciliate rim. 
Panicle erect, spike-like, very narrow, 3-9 in. long, sometimes interrupted. 
below; branches short, crowded, erect and appressed to the rhachis, 
Spikelets very numerous, crowded, 4in. long. Two outer glumes unequal, 
the lowest not much more than ¢ the length of the 2nd, hyaline, 
nerveless, or the 2nd l-nerved; 38rd or flowering glume nearly twice as 
long as the 2nd, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 1-3-nerved. Palea almost as 
long as the flowering glume. Stamens usually 2. Grain obovoid or roughly 
quadrangular, reddish; pericarp thin. Benth. Fl. Austral. vu (1878) 622; 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 860. 8. elongatus A. Br. Prodr. (1810) 170; 
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 295; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 327; Buch. 
N.Z. Grasses (1879) t. 18. 
NorrH anp Sours Isutanps: Lowland districts from the North Cape to Nelson 
and Marlborough, abundant, especially in the northern part of the North Island. 
Ratstarl. 
A common grass in all warm countries. Although now presenting all the appear- 
ance of a true native, it is certainly introduced into New Zealand. Bishop Williams 
informs me that it made its first appearance at the Bay of Islands in 1840, shortly after 
the arrival of a ship called the “ Surabayo,’’ which, while on a voyage from Valparaiso 
to Sydney, laden with horses and forage, put into the Bay of Islands in a disabled state, 
and was there condemned and her cargo sold. LHrigeron canadensis and other weeds 
appeared at the same time. | 
. WUB-CT, 4: eeu (1M). 
. SIMPLICIA T. Kirk. 1&4 7 
A slender decumbent grass. Leaves flat. Spikelets minute, 1-flowered, 
solitary and pedicelled on the branches of a slender panicle; rhachilla 
disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes, produced above the flower into 
a minute bristle. Glumes 3; 2 outer minute, unequal, empty, hyaline, 
persistent ; 3rd or flowering glume much longer than the outer glumes, 
oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or shortly awned, keeled, obscurely 1-3- 
nerved. Palea almost as long as the flowering glume, 2-nerved. 
Lodicules 2. Stamens 1-3. Styles distinct; stigmas shortly plumose. 
Grain oblong, free within the flowering glume and palea. 
A peculiar monotypic genus, endemic in New Zealand. Professor Hackel con- 
siders it to be intermediate between Sporobolus and Agrostis, differing from the former 
in the rhachilla being produced beyond the flower, and from the latter in the minute 
unequal empty glumes, large palea, &c. Mr. Kirk compared it to Muhlenbergia. For 
its original discovery we are indebted to the exertions of Mr. Petrie. 
1. S. laxa 7. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxix (1897) 497.—Culms weak, 
decumbent, very slender, filiform, 8-18in. long. Leaves 1-4 in. long by 
so-s . broad, flat, flaccid, glabrous or minutely ciliate along the nerves ; 
sheaths long, glabrous or pubescent; ligule long, membranous. Panicle 
very slender, narrow, 2-6in. long; rhachis filiform ; branches few, filiform, 
erect, smooth or minutely scaberulous. Spikelets lanceolate, pale-green, 
about zzin. long. Two outer glumes minute, unequal, glabrous, the 
lower § he length of the upper, which is z the length of the flowering 
glume ; 3rd or flowering glume acuminate or shortly awned, pubescent 
with short stiff erect hairs. Palea almost as long as the flowering glume, 
acute, pubescent. Ripe grain not seen.—Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fi. (1906) 
861; Ill. N.Z. Fl. (1914) t. 221. see Pein Trane 44s $F 
Nort Istanp: Wellington—Dry River, Ruamahanga, Lower Wairarapa, 7’. Kirk / 
SouTH Isianp: Otago—Deep Stream, Waikouaiti, Petrie / 
