22. Amphibromus, Nees.

Slender glabrous grasses. Leaves flat. Spikelets 5–10-flowered, arranged in a lax panicle rhachilla slender, hairy, jointed between the flowers. Two outer glumes persistent, empty, acute, keeled, 5-nerved at the base, with scarious margins, awnless. Flowering glumes more rigid, rounded on the back, prominently 5-nerved, often split at the tip with the lobes produced into short awns; dorsal awn from about the middle of the back, straight or bent, often twisted. Palea thin, 2-toothed. Stamens 3. Styles short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Lodicules 2. Grain oblong, glabrous, enclosed within the flowering glume and palea.

A small genus of 2 species, the present one and another endemic in Australia.

• 1. A. fluitans,T. Kirk in Traits. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 374, t. 28.—Culms weak, branched, creeping and rooting at the base, erect or floating above, glabrous, 12–18 in. long. Leaves numerous, sheathing the culm up to the base of the panicle, narrow, flat, minutely scabrid on the margins and veins sheaths rather broad and lax, compressed, grooved, longer than the internodes; ligules long, pointed, hyaline. Panicle 2–4 in. long, narrow, lax,few-page 883flowered; branches few, short, capillary, scaberulous, the lowermost with 2–3 spikelets, the upper 1-spieulate. Spikelets compressed, pale-green, usually about ½ in. long without the awns, 4–7-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, small, the upper not one-half the length of the flowering glume above it. Flowering glumes silky at the base, firm and rather rigid when in fruit, 5–7-nerved, scabrous on the back and sides; awn from the middle of the back, long, straight, scabrid, not bent nor twisted. Palea hyaline, 2-nerved, strongly ciliate on the nerves.

  North Island Auckland—Marshes near Waiuku, Carse!Lakes Whangape and Waikare, T. F. C.;Lake Waihi, Kirk!Taranaki—Swamps near New Plymouth, T. F. C.

  Distinguished from the Australian A. Neesii by the weak decumbent habit, smaller panicle, narrower spikelets, shorter outer glumes, and straight awn.