"The Spaniard (spear-grass or bayonet-grass) `piked us intil the bane,' and I assure you we were hard set to make any headway at all."
1875. Lady Barker, `Station Amusements in New Zealand,' p. 35:
"The least touch of this green bayonet draws blood, and a fall <i>into</i> a <i>Spaniard</i> is a thing to be remembered all one's life."
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 287:
"Carefully avoiding contact with the long-armed leaves of Spaniards (<i>Aciphylla</i>), which here attain the larger dimensions, carrying flower-spikes up to six feet long."
1890. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xxiii. p. 197:
"Here were rats which lived under the dead leaves of the prickly `<i>Spaniard</i>,' and possibly fed on the roots. The <i>Spaniard</i> leaves forked into stiff upright fingers about 1 in. wide, ending in an exceedingly stiff pricking point."
1896. `Otago Witness,' May 7, p. 48 "Prickly as the points of the Spaniard."
<hw>Spear-grass</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to several grasses whose spear-like seeds spoil the wool of sheep, but which are yet excellent forage plants. They are—(1) all the species of <i>Stipa</i>; (2) <i>Heteropogon contortus</i>, Roem. and Schult., and others (see quotations); (3) and in New Zealand, one or two plants of the umbelliferous genus <i>Aciphylla</i>; also called <i>Spaniard</i> (q.v.).
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 44: