as long as the 2nd, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 1–3-nerved. Palea almost as long as the flowering glume. Stamens usually 2. Grain obovoid or roughly quadrangular, reddish; pericarp thin.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 622. S. elongatus, R. Br. Prodr. 170; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 295; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 327; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 18.
North and South Islands: Lowland districts from the North Cape to Nelson and Marlborough, abundant, especially in the northern part of the North Island. Ratstail.
A common grass in all warm countries. Although now presenting all the appearance of a true native, it is certainly introduced into New Zealand. Bishop Williams informs me that it made its first appearance at the Bay of Islands in 1840, shortly after the arrival of a ship called the "Surabayo," which, while on a voyage from Valparaiso to Sydney, laden with horses and forage, put into the Bay of Islands in a disabled state, and was there condemned and her cargo sold. Erigeron canadensis and other weeds appeared at the same time.
16. SIMPLICIA, T. Kirk.
A slender decumbent grass. Leaves flat. Spikelets minute, 1-flowered, solitary and pedicelled on the branches of a slender panicle; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes, produced above the flower into a minute bristle. Glumes 3; 2 outer minute, unequal, empty, hyaline, persistent; 3rd or flowering glume much longer than the outer glumes, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or shortly awned, keeled, obscurely 1–3-nerved. Palea almost as long as the flowering glume, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2. Stamens 1–2. Styles distinct; stigmas shortly plumose. Grain oblong, free within the flowering glume and palea.
A peculiar monotypic genus, endemic in New Zealand. Professor Hackel considers it to be intermediate between Sporobolus and Agrostis, differing from the former in the rhachilla being produced beyond the flower, and from the latter in the minute unequal empty glumes, large palea, &c. Mr. Kirk compared it to Muhlenbergia.
1. S. laxa, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxix. (1897) 497.—Culms weak, decumbent, very slender, filiform, 8–18 in. long. Leaves 1–4 in. long by 120–18 in. broad, flat, flaccid, glabrous or minutely ciliate along the nerves; sheaths long, glabrous or pubescent; ligule long, membranous. Panicle very slender, narrow, 2–6 in. long; rhachis filiform; branches few, filiform, erect, smooth or minutely scaberulous. Spikelets lanceolate, pale-green, about 112 in. long. Two outer glumes minute, unequal, glabrous, the lower ⅔ the length of the upper, which is ¼ the length of the flowering glume; 3rd or flowering glume acuminate or shortly awned, pubescent with short stiff erect hairs. Palea almost as long as the flowering glume, acute, pubescent. Ripe grain not seen.
North Island: Wellington—Dry River, Ruamahanga, Lower Wairarapa, Kirk! South Island: Otago—Deep Stream, Waikouaiti, Petrie!
