18 0 GRAMINEAE, [ Eleusine, 
LY - 1. E. indiea Gaertn. Fruet. 1, 8—Annual. Culms tufted, erect or 
decumbent at the base, branched, stout or slender, compressed, quite 
glabrous, 9-24in. high. Leaves numerous, distichous, 4-9in. long, $+ in. 
broad, flat, rather flaccid, acuminate; sheaths compressed, pale, margins 
ciliate ; ligules almost obsolete. Spikes rather slender, straight, 14-3 in. 
long, usually 3-6 in a terminal umbel, generally one inserted lower down ; 
rhachis smooth or pubescent at the base. Spikelets about }in. long, 
densely imbricated, 3-6-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, the lower 
small, l-nerved ; the upper 3—5-nerved. Flowering glumes much larger, 
ovate when spread out, acute, 3-nerved. Grain oblong; pericarp very 
lax and membranous, enclosing the rugose seed.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii 
(1878) 615; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx (1888) 176; Man. N.Z. 
FI. (1906) 892. 
KerMaDEC Istanps: Lower portions of Sunday Island and on Meyer Island, 
plentiful and apparently indigenous, 7’. Ff. C., W. R. B. Oliver! Norru anp Sours 
IsLtANDS: Naturalized near Auckland, Sinclair, and at Westport, W. Townson / 
25. ARUNDO Linn. 1757 
Tall perennial reed-like grasses. Culms densely tufted, stout, almost 
woody at the base. Leaves flat. Spikelets numerous, laterally compressed, 
2-7-flowered, arranged in large decompound panicles; rhachilla disarticu- 
lating above the two outer glumes and between the flowering glumes. Two 
outer glumes persistent, empty, subequal, lanceolate, acuminate, mem- 
branous, glabrous. Flowering glumes ovate-lanceolate, 3-5-nerved, pilose 
along the back and towards the base with long silky hairs, 2-fid at the 
apex, with a cuspidate point or awn from between the lobes. Palea short, 
hyaline, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, obovate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous ; 
styles distinct ; stigmas plumose. Grain oblong, free within the flowering 
glume and palea, 
A small genus of 10 or 12 species, dispersed through most tropical and warm- 
temperate regions. The two species found in New Zealand are endemic. 
Two outer glumes including the flowering glumes and their awns. 
Flowering glumes deeply bifid, the divisions long and _bristle- 
pointed € “ts : ba Ay 1. A. conspicua. 
T'wo outer glumes shorter than the awns of the flowering glumes. 
Flowering glumes not so deeply bifid, the divisions scarcely bristle- 
pointed = nee, . rs fore pie 2p A. fulvida, 
1. A. eonspicua Forst. f. Prodr. (1786) n. 48.— Forming hiige dense 
tussocks with numerous long curving leaves. Culms 3-10 ft. high, as thick 
as the finger at the base, slender, erect, smooth, hollow. Leaves long, 
harrow, coriaceous, flat or involute, strongly nerved, smooth or scabrid 
along the margins and on the nerves of the upper surface; sheaths long, 
smooth ; ligules reduced to a transverse band of short stiff hairs. Panicle 
very handsome, silky-white or yellowish-white, copiously branched, 1-2 ft. 
long; branches drooping, very many-spiculate, smooth or pilose-scabrid. 
Spikelets 1-3-flowered, on short capillary pedicels. Two outer glumes 
subequal, 413 in. long, longer than or at least equalling the awns of the 
flowering glumes, narrow-lanceolate, gradually tapering into long acu- 
minate points, membranous, 1-nerved, usually with a very short lateral 
nerve on each side near the base. Flowering glumes hyaline, 3-nerved, 
lower half densely clothed with long silky hairs, deeply 2-fid at the tip, the 
