i. 310; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 341; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 661; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 56a. B. australis, R. Br. Prodr. 178; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 258; Raoul, Choix, 39.
North Island: Rocky and sandy places near the sea, abundant from the North Cape to the East Cape and Taranaki, local farther south, rare inland, but occurring at Lake Rotorua and elsewhere. South Island: Cape Farewell, Kirk! Also not uncommon in Australia.
Several species of Bromus from the Northern Hemisphere are now firmly established as naturalised plants, the most abundant being B. mollis, a rather small species with a compact ovoid panicle and turgid spikelets; and B. sterilis, with a lax drooping panicle and large long-awned spikelets 2 in. long, with the awns.
32. AGROPYRUM, Gaertn.
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves flat or convolute; ligules scarious. Spikelets more or less laterally compressed, 3- to many-flowered, solitary and sessile, distichously placed in the alternate hollows of the continuous or jointed rhachis of a simple spike, one face of the spikelet next the rhachis; rhachilla disarticulating above the two outer glumes and usually between the flowering glumes. Two outer glumes subequal or unequal, empty, persistent, lanceolate or linear. Flowering glumes more or less rigid and coriaceous, rounded on the back or keeled above, 5–7-nerved, awned or awnless. Palea rather shorter than the glume, sharply 2-keeled, ciliate on the keels. Lodicules 2, oblique or unequally lobed, entire or ciliate. Stamens 3. Ovary villous at the top; styles very short; stigmas plumose. Grain narrow, compressed at the back, often adherent to the palea; hilum as long as the grain.
Species about 35, found in almost all temperate counties, but most abundant in Europe and north Asia. Of the 4 species found in New Zealand, 1 extends to Australia, the remaining 3 are endemic.
| * Awn short, never more than ½ the length of the flowering glume. | |
| Spikelets 1 in., 6–12-flowered. Awn very short, sometimes wanting | 1. A. multiflorum. |
| Spikelets ½ in., 2–4-flowered. Awn from ⅓ to ½ the length of the flowering glume | 2. A. Enysii. |
| ** Awn very long, from 3 to 5 times the length of the flowering glume. | |
| Spikelets 1½-3 in. long with the awns; awn rather slender | 3. A. scabrum. |
| Spikelets 4 in. long with the awns; awn stout, rigid, channelled | 4. A. Youngii. |
1. A. multiflorum, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxix. (1897) 530.—Perennial. Culms densely tufted, branched, decumbent or almost prostrate at the base, erect above, quite smooth and glabrous, leafy, 1–2 ft. high. Leaves 3–8 in. long, about ⅙ in. broad, flat or slightly convolute when dry, tapering from the base upwards, somewhat rigid and coriaceous, prominently striate,
