4. T. Cheesemanii, Hack. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxv. (1903) 381.—Culms rather stout, erect, 3–12 in. high, naked and puberulous above, leafy below, 2-noded, the upper node in the lower ¼ of the culm. Leaves crowded at the base of the culms, flat, 110–18 in. broad, firm, erect, glaucous, finely scaberulous on the veins and margins; sheaths rather lax, subcompressed, minutely puberulous; ligules short, truncate, denticulate. Panicle very dense, cylindrical, 1–2½ in. long, ½ in. broad; rhachis tomentose; branches densely imbricate, short, binate or ternate. Spikelets elliptic-lanceolate, compressed, whitish-yellow, shining, 2-flowered, about ¼ in. long. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, lanceolate, acute, scabrid on the keel, minutely rough on the sides, the lower 1-nerved, the 2nd 3-nerved. Flowering glumes lanceolate, very shortly 2-cuspidate, slightly hairy at the base, minutely rough, faintly 5-nerved; awn very short indeed, from between the terminal teeth or just below them. Palea ¼ shorter than the glume, scabrid along the nerves. Rhachilla produced between the flowering glumes and beyond the upper flower, silky.
North Island: Mount Hikurangi, Petrie! South Island: Canterbury—Craigieburn Mountains, Petrie! Cockayne! Hooker Glacier, T.F.C. Otago—Petrie! 3000–5000 ft.
This has much of the habit and appearance of T. subspicatum, but differs from it, and from all the other species, in the very shortly bidentate flowering glume, with the intermediate awn springing almost from between the teeth, not from the back some distance below the teeth, as is usual in the genus.
22. AMPHIBROMUS, Nees.
Slender glabrous grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets 5–10-flowered, arranged in a lax panicle; rhachilla slender, hairy, jointed between the flowers. Two outer glumes persistent, empty, acute, keeled, 5-nerved at the base, with scarious margins, awnless. Flowering glumes more rigid, rounded on the back, prominently 5-nerved, often split at the tip with the lobes produced into short awns; dorsal awn from about the middle of the back, straight or bent, often twisted. Palea thin, 2-toothed. Stamens 3. Styles short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Lodicules 2. Grain oblong, glabrous, enclosed within the flowermg glume and palea.
A small genus of 2 species, the present one and another endemic in Australia.
1. A. fluitans, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 374, t, 28.—Culms weak, branched, creeping and rooting at the base, erect or floating above, glabrous, 12–18 in. long. Leaves numerous, sheathing the culm up to the base of the panicle, narrow, flat, minutely scabrid on the margins and veins; sheaths rather broad and lax, compressed, grooved, longer than the internodes; ligules long, pointed, hyaline. Panicle 2–4 in. long, narrow, lax, few-
