a prickly bushy grass of NewZealand, Aciphylla colensoi.
1857. `Paul's Letters from Canterbury,' p. 108:
«The country through which I have passed has been most savage, one mass of Spaniards.»
1862. J. Von Haast, `Geology of Westland,' p. 25:
«Groves of large specimens of Discaria toumatoo,the Wild Irishman of the settlers, formed with the gigantic Aciphylla Colensoi, the Spaniard or Bayonet-grass,an often impenetrable thicket.»
1863. S. Butler, `First Year of Canterbury Settlement,' p. 67:
«The Spaniard (spear-grass or bayonet-grass) `piked us intilthe bane,' and I assure you we were hard set to make anyheadway at all.»
1875. Lady Barker, `Station Amusements in New Zealand,' p. 35:
«The least touch of this green bayonet draws blood, and a fall into a Spaniard is a thing to be remembered allone's life.»
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 287:
«Carefully avoiding contact with the long-armed leaves ofSpaniards ( Aciphylla), which here attain the largerdimensions, 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 theprickly ` Spaniard,' and possibly fed on the roots.The Spaniard leaves forked into stiff upright fingersabout 1 in. wide, ending in an exceedingly stiff pricking point.»
1896. `Otago Witness,' May 7, p. 48 «Prickly as the pointsof the Spaniard.»