slender, 1–2 in. long, usually 2 but sometimes 3 or even 4, the lateral ones sessile or nearly so; rhachis flat, margins scabrid. Spikelets in 2 rows, nearly sessile, imbricate and appressed to the rhachis, ovate-oblong, acute, flattened, pale-green. Empty glumes equal, acute, membranous, pubescent or glabrous; the lower one 3-nerved; the upper 5-nerved, sometimes an additional minute empty glume is present at the base of the spikelet. Flowering glume coriaceous, smooth, shining, faintly nerved. Palea smaller, coriaceous, margins inflexed but not auricled.—Stapf. in Fl. Capen. vii. 370.
North Island: Auckland—Near Ahipara, T.F.C.; Bay of Islands and Whangarei, Petrie! marshes by the lower Waikato, T.F.C.; Coromandel, Petrie!
Probably introduced into New Zealand, as in Australia, South Africa, India, and other countries, but the localities it affects give it the appearance of being indigenous. It is a common plant in many parts of America, from Virginia southwards. It can be distinguished from P. distichum by its greater size, much broader flat leaves, and by the lateral spikes being sessile.
3. P. distichum, Linn. Amœn. Acad. v. 391.—Rhizome long, branched, creeping and rooting. Culms numerous, ascending, sheathed throughout by the leaves, glabrous, 2–8 in. high. Leaves numerous, distichous, 2–5 in. long by about 112 in. broad, linear, acute, strict, spreading, usually involute; ligules short, truncate; sheaths thin, pale, loose, bearded at the mouth. Spikes 2, both peduncled and jointed on the top of the culm, usually spreading, 1–1½ in, long; rhachis narrower than the spikelets. Spikelets in two rows, sessile or nearly so, imbricate and appressed to the rhachis, oblong, acute or almost acuminate, flattened, glabrous, pale. Empty glumes equal, acute, thin and membranous, faintly 3–5-nerved. Flowering glume rather shorter than the empty glumes, coriaceous, pale, very indistinctly nerved. Palea coriaceous like the flowering glume, margins slightly auricled.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 291; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 323; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 460; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 10b.
North Island: Auckland—Salt marshes from the North Cape to the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato River, abundant.
Widely distributed in all warm countries.
4. ISACHNE, R. Br.
Perennial or rarely annual grasses. Culms tufted, or decumbent or creeping at the base. Spikelets small or minute, loosely panicled, not at all or very obscurely articulate on the pedicels, 2-flowered; both flowers hermaphrodite, or the lower flower sometimes male, and the upper flower sometimes female. Empty glumes 2, subequal, persistent or separately deciduous, convex, membranous, awnless. Flowering glumes 2, rather smaller than
