acuminate points, membranous, 1-nerved, usually with a very short lateral nerve on each side near the base. Flowering glumes hyaline, 3-nerved, lower half densely clothed with long silky hairs, deeply 2-fid at the tip, the divisions produced into bristle-like awns; central awn from between the divisions, long, slender, scabrid. Palea shorter than the glume, pubescent on the nerves.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 299; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 331; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 27; Bot. Mag. t. 6232. A. australis, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 121; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 265. A. Kakao, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 194. Achnatherum conspicuum, Beauv. Agrost. 146. Gynerium zeelandicum, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 198. Calamagrostis conspicua, Gmel. Syst. 172. Agrostis conspicua, Roem. and Schult. Syst. ii. 364; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 127; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 250; Raoul, Choix, 39.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Abundant throughout in damp lowland situations. Toetoe-Kakaho; culms of, Kakaho.
The largest grass in the colony, forming a very characteristic feature of the vegetation in all swampy tracts, river-banks, sandhills, &c. The culms were formerly largely used by the Maoris for lining their meeting-houses, and were often dyed in elaborate patterns.
2. A. fulvida, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. vi. (1874) 242.—Habit and general appearance of A. conspicua, but rather smaller, culms seldom more than 6 ft. high. Panicle pale-fulvous, usually more compact, broader and more erect, 1–2 ft. long. Spikelets 1–3-flowered. Two outer glumes shorter, ⅓–⅔ in. long, not drawn out into such long points, and usually considerably shorter than the awns of the flowering glumes. Flowering glumes not so deeply bifid at the tip, the divisions scarcely awned; central awn exserted beyond the outer glumes.—N.Z. Grasses, t. 28. A. conspicua var. fulvida, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. App. xliii.
North and South Islands: From the Bay of Islands to Foveaux Strait, not nearly so abundant as A. conspicua.
This does not differ from A. conspicua except in the outer glumes not including the awns of the flowering glumes, and in the terminal lobes of the flowering glumes being shorter and scarcely awned. It would probably be better treated as an extreme form of A. conspicua than as a separate species.
The widely distributed Phragmites communis, Trin., the common Reed of Europe, has been recorded by Baron Mueller as a native of New Zealand on the strength of a specimen said to have been collected by Dr. Haast at the Grey River, Westland (Veg. Chath. Is. 61). But it has not been collected by any other explorer, and there are no native specimens in any New Zealand herbarium. Probably Dr. Haast's specimen was not truly indigenous. Phragmites can be distinguished from Arundo by the lowermost flower of the spikelet being male, and by the flowering glume being glabrous, the long silky hairs being confined to the rhachilla.
