culm, narrow, setaceously involute, strict, erect, quite smooth; sheaths pale, lower rather lax; ligules ovate, membranous. Panicle slender, contracted when in flower, 3–6 in. 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, ¼–⅓ in. long, 5–9-flowered. Two outer glumes very unequal, the lower narrow-ovate, acute, 1-nerved, not half the length of the flowering glume above it; upper twice as long as the lower, oblong, 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 140 in. long.—Glyceria stricta, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 304; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 336; Fl. Tasm. ii. 123, t. 162b; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 658; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 41a.
Var. suborbicularis, Hack. MSS.—Flowering glume much broader than in the type, in outline almost orbicular. Leaves weaker and thinner.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon in brackish-water marshes from the Bay of Islands southwards to the Bluff. Var. suborbicularis: Near Oamaru, Petrie!
Also in Australia and Tasmania. The northern A. distans, Griseb., which is closely allied to A. stricta, is naturalised in several localities. It is not nearly so strict, the leaves are flatter, the panicle not so contracted, and the spikelets are much smaller.
2. A. novæ-zealandiæ, Hack. MSS.—Annual, pale whitish-green. Culms densely tufted, erect, quite glabrous, leafy, 3–4-noded, the uppermost node much above the middle, 4–14 in. high. Leaves sheathing the whole of the culm, strict, erect, complicate, striate; sheaths compressed, usually longer than the blades, grooved; ligules broad, membranous, hyaline, irregularly toothed at the tip. Panicle 2–6 in. long, erect, contracted, dense, pale whitish-green; branches in fascicles of 2–7, very unequal, short, smooth, erect. Spikelets numerous, sessile or shortly pedicelled, about ¼ in. long, 4–5-flowered. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, about ½ the length of the whole spikelet; lower narrow, lanceolate, acute, 1-nerved, sometimes with a short lateral nerve on each side; upper broader and more obtuse, 3-nerved. Flowering glumes oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse and hyaline at the tip, with sometimes an obscure notch on each side, 5-nerved, glabrous or slightly hairy on the back near the base. Palea as long as the glume, linear-oblong, minutely bidentate at the tip, ciliolate on the nerves. Lodicules distinct. Anthers linear-oblong, about 120 in. long.—Poa Walkeri, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 224. Glyceria novæ-zealandiæ, Petrie in. Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxiii. (1901) 329.
