broad, thin, 5-nerved, 3-lobed at the tip, the lateral lobes short and acute, the middle one produced into a straight stiff awn. Palea shorter than the flowering glume, narrow, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2. Stamens 3. Styles distinct; stigmas shortly plumose. Grain free within the flowering glume.
The genus is confined to the following species, which has a wide range in Australia as well as in New Zealand.
1. E. ovatus, Beauv. Agrost. 42, t. 9.—Culms laxly tufted, decumbent at the base, erect above, slender, stiff, minutely scabrid above, 9–24 in. high. Leaves 1–6 in. long, ⅛–¼ in. broad, flat, striate, margins and both surfaces harsh and scabrid; sheaths rather long, closely appressed, deeply striate, scabrid with reversed projections; ligule short, membranous, lacerate. Spike-like panicle varying in size from ½–1½ in. long, ovoid-globose to narrow-oblong, bristling with the long awns; branches short, densely packed. Spikelets compressed, 110–18 in. long without the awns. Two outer glumes subequal, lanceolate, acute, sharply keeled, keel very prominent, green, ciliate; 3rd or flowering glume equalling or slightly exceeding the empty glumes, broad, furnished at the base with a pencil of silky hairs, awn rigid, scabrous, ¼–⅓ in. long. Palea linear-oblong, 2-nerved, with a hairy bristle-like continuation of the rhachilla at its back.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 298; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 325; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 599; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 13b. Agrostis ovata, Forst. Prodr. n. 40; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 128; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 247; Raoul, Choix, 39. Cinna ovata, Kunth, Enum. i. 208. Hystericina alopecuroides, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 35.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon in dry places throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft.
14. ALOPECURUS, Linn.
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets strongly laterally compressed, 1-flowered, densely crowded in a cylindric spike-like panicle, articulated on the top of the very short pedicels. Glumes 3; the 2 outer subequal, often connate below, sharply keeled, acute or obtuse, not awned, often fringed on the keels; 3rd or flowering glume about as long as the outer glumes, convolute, hyaline, usually with a slender bent dorsal awn. Palea generally wanting. Lodicules absent. Stamens 2 or 3. Styles distinct or connate. Grain laterally compressed, free within the flowering glume and palea.
Species about 20, in the temperate and cool regions of both hemispheres, several of them excellent fodder-grasses. The single New Zealand species is widely distributed.
1. A. geniculatus, Linn. Sp. Plant. 60.—Culms creeping and rooting at the base, erect above, rather slender, glabrous, 9–18 in.
