13. D. nuda, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 337.—Culms slender, tufted, branched at the base, quite glabrous, 3–9 in. high. Leaves much shorter than the culms, involute, filiform, quite smooth and glabrous; sheaths pale, grooved; ligules reduced to a band of silky hairs. Panicle small, erect, contracted, ½–1½ in. long, of 5–15 spikelets; branches few, short, pubescent. Spikelets greenish-white, small, ⅙–¼ in. long, 3–6-flowered. Two outer glumes usually exceeding the flowering glumes and awns, subequal, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 3–5-nerved. Flowering glumes short and broad, ovate, 7–9-nerved, very shortly bifid at the tip, central awn from between the lobes, very short, ⅙–⅛ the length of the glume, not twisted at the base, a tuft of silky hairs at the base of the glume, and two small marginal tufts (sometimes confluent) on each side higher up, back of the glume quite glabrous. Palea oblong, shorter than the glume.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 333; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 36a. D. Thomsoni, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 36(2).
North Island: Mountains near the East Coast, Colenso. South Island: Nelson—Mount Arthur Plateau, T.F.C. Canterbury—Broken River, Petrie! T.F.C.; Poulter River, Cockayne! Lake Tekapo, T.F.C. Otago—Kahiku Hills, Buchanan; common in dry places in the eastern and central portions of the district, Petrie! Sea-level to 3500 ft.
The description given above is based upon South Island specimens, the plant not having been observed in the North Island since its original discovery by Mr. Colenso sixty years ago. As Hooker's description does not quite match the southern plant, the identity of the two must remain doubtful for the present.
24. ELEUSINE, Gaertn.
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves long, flat or folded, firm or membranous. Spikelets 3- to many-flowered, laterally compressed, sessile and densely imbricate in 2 rows on one side of a flattened rhachis, forming linear spikes; spikes digitately arranged or irregularly scattered; rhachilla disarticulating above the outer glumes. Two outer glumes shorter than the flowering glumes, persistent, empty, unequal, keeled, obtuse or mucronate, membranous, 3–5-nerved. Flowering glumes similar to the outer glumes, 3-nerved at the base. Palea shorter than the glumes, complicate and 2-keeled. Lodicules 2, minute. Stamens 3; anthers short. Styles short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain broadly oblong, grooved; pericarp lax, hyaline.
Species 6, most plentiful in tropical Asia and Africa, the one found in the New Zealand area a weed in all warm countries.
1. E. indica, Gaertn. Fruct. i. 8.—Annual. Culms tufted, erect or decumbent at the base, branched, stout or slender, compressed, quite glabrous, 9–24 in. high. Leaves numerous, distichous, 4–9 in. long, ⅛–⅓ in. broad, flat, rather flaccid, acuminate; sheaths compressed, pale, margins ciliate; ligules almost obsolete. Spikes
