rough above, often glaucous; sheaths tight, pale, grooved; ligules short, truncate, membranous. Spike straight, erect, 3–6 in. long, of 6–12 spikelets; rhachis pubescent on the angles. Spikelets about 1 in. long, close or somewhat distant, erect, appressed to the rhachis, 6–12-flowered. Two outer glumes small, unequal, lanceolate, acuminate, 3–7-nerved. Flowering glumes oblong-lanceolate when spread out, convolute, smooth and rounded on the back below, scabridly keeled above, 7–9-nerved, coriaceous, acute or mucronate or produced into a short awn of varying length. Palea sharply keeled and folded, ciliolate on the keels.—Triticum multiflorum, Banks and Sol. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 311; Handb. N.Z. FL. 342.; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 56b. T. repens, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 138; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 261; Raoul, Choix, 39 (not of Linn.).
Var. longisetum, Hack. MSS.—Awn longer, sometimes half the length of the flowering glume.
North Island: Not uncommon in lowland districts throughout, especially near the coast. South Island: Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander; near Nelson, T.F.C.; Canterbury, Armstrong.
A variable plant in the size of the spikelets, number of flowering glumes, and the extent to which the awn is developed.
2. A. Enysii, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 352.—Culms laxly tufted, very slender, weak, decumbent at the base, erect above, sparingly leafy, 1–2½ ft. high. Leaves much shorter than the culms, 115–16 in. broad, flat, flaccid, striate, minutely rough to the touch, glabrous or sparingly villous; sheaths long, tight, softly villous or the upper ones almost glabrous; ligules short, truncate, erose. Spike 2–5 in. long, slender, erect or inclined, often interrupted below, of 9–18 spikelets; rhachis compressed, scabrid on the angles. Spikelets bluish-green, ½ in. long, 2–4-flowered. Two outer glumes about ½ the length of the spikelet, subequal, linear-lanceolate, 3–5-nerved, gradually narrowed into a scabrid acuminate point or awn ⅓ to ½ the length of the glume. Flowering glumes lanceolate, rounded on the back, smooth and coriaceous, 5-nerved, sometimes minutely 2-toothed at the tip, narrowed into a short scabrid awn about ⅓ the length of the glume. Palea shorter than the glume, linear-oblong, coriaceous, ciliolate on the keels.—Asprella aristata, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvi. (1894) 272.
South Island: Canterbury—Slopes of Mount Torlesse and Broken River, Enys! Petrie! T.F.C.; Bealey River, Kirk! Poulter River, Cockayne! Southern Alps, N. T. Carrington! 2500–4500 ft.
A very distinct species, at once recognised by the weak habit, flat membranous leaves, narrow spike, and few-flowered spikelets. Very similar in habit to Asperella gracilis, and easily mistaken for it on a cursory inspection, but the structure of the spikelet is that of Agropyrum.
