Puce NELLIA acl. UH. Hal. 1, F 6k (844) 
202 GRAMINEAE, [Atropis. 
Allaw 5 baxnse~ : Ay - ‘ 
Py 5. 69 ps. st |v-’ 29. ATROPIS Rupr. '& ® S 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves linear, flat or plicate or convo- 
lute ; ligules hyaline. Spikelets 3- to many-flowered, narrow, laterally 
compressed or almost cylindric, in open or contracted panicles ; rhachilla 
disarticulating above the two outer glumes and between the flowering 
glumes, glabrous, produced beyond the uppermost flower. Two outer 
olumes persistent, broad, empty, unequal, rounded on the back, 1-3-nerved. 
Flowering glumes broad, oblong, obtuse, rounded on the back, 5-nerved, 
nerves often obscure. Palea nearly as long as the flowering glume, 2- 
keeled. Lodicules 2, large, ovate, usually distinct. Stamens 3. Ovary 
elabrous; styles wanting; stigmas plumose. Grain enclosed in the 
hardened flowering glume and palea, oblong, almost semiterete ; hilum 
small, basal, punctiform. 
A small genus of 15 or 20 species, mostly from the temperate regions of the Northern 
Hemisphere. It differs from Poa principally in the flowering glumes being rounded 
on the back, not keeled. 
* Panicle contracted_in flower, open in fruit. 
6-18 in. high. Spikelets }-1in., 5-9-flowered .. is ». L A. stricta. 
** Panicle contracted in both flower and fruit. 
Small, very slender, 4-Sin. high, 2-noded. Spikelets $in., 5-6- 
flowered. = “7 et eS 4. _ 4. 2, A. antipoda. 
Slender, 4-14 in. high, 3-4-noded. Spikelets 4 in., 4-5-flowered .. 3. A. Walker. 
Stout, loosely tufted, 9-18 in. high, 4-5-noded. Spikelets 4-}in., 
4-6-flowered aa AA A" Are », .. 4, A, Ohathamica. 
om L) cy dheceen. 
1. A. strictt Hack “SS —Annual. Culms tufted, strict, erect, quite 
glabrous, leafy, # 4-noded, the uppermost node below the middle, 6-18 in. 
high. Leaves sheathing almost the whole of the culm, narrow, setaceously 
involute, strict, erect, quite smooth ; sheaths pale, lower rather lax ; ligules 
ovate, membranous. Panicle slender, contracted when in flower, 3—6in. 
long; branches very unequal, in distant fascicles of 2-5, strict, erect in 
flower, spreading in fruit, simple or sparingly branched. Spikelets alternate 
on the branchlets, narrow, almost terete, pale, +-4in. long, 5—9-flowered. 
Two outer glumes very unequal, the lower narrow-ovate, acute, 1-nerved, 
not 4 the length of the flowering glume above it; upper twice as long 
as the lower, subacute, 3-nerved. Flowering glumes oblong, obtuse and 
hyaline at the tips, distinctly 5-nerved, but the nerves disappearing below 
the tip, quite smooth and glabrous. Palea shorter than the glume, linear- 
oblong, ciliolate along the keels. Lodicules distinct. Anthers oblong, 
about ,in. long—Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 914. Glyceria stricta 
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 304; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 336; Fl. Tasm. ii 
(1860) 123, t. 1628; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii (1878) 658; Buch. N.Z. Grasses 
(1880) t. 41a. 
Var. suborbicularis Hack. MSS.—Flowering glume much broader than in the type, 
in outline almost orbicular. Leaves weaker and thinner. 
Norra anp Sourn Isnanps: Not uncommon in brackish-water marshes from 
the Bay of Islands southwards to the Bluff. Var. suborbicularis ; Banks Peninsula, 
R. M. Laing ; near Oamaru, Petrie! AucKLAND Istanps: Enderby Island, B. C. Aston! 
_ Also in Australia and Tasmania. The northern A. distans Griseb., which is closely 
allied to A. stricta, is naturalized in several localities. It is not nearly so strict, the 
leaves are flatter, the panicle not so contracted, and the spikelets are much smaller. 
