298 NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
Dactyuis czspitosa. (Tab. IX. X.) 
Panicula spiciformi densa interrupta valde compressa, 
locustis brevissime pedicellatis late ovatis 4-floris, glumis 
subeequalibus, palea inferiore puberula apice bifida breviter 
aristata, culmis validis compressis foliisque longissimis dis- 
tichis glaberrimis. : 
Dactylis czespitosa. Forster in Comment. Goett. 9. p. 22. 
Willd. Sp. Pl. v. 1. p. 407. 
Festuca cespitosa. Rem. and Schult. Syst. Veget. v. 2. p. 
732. Kunth, Agrostogr. p. 408. 
Festuca flabellata. Lam. Encycl. Bot. t. 2. p. 462. Gaud. in 
Ann. des Sc. Nat. v. 5. p. 100., and in Freyc. Voy. Bot. p. 
409. D'Urv. in Mém. Soc. Linn. v. 5. p. 603., and in Duper- 
rey Voy. Bot. p. 36. 
Has. New Year's Island, Staten Land, Forster. Straits 
of Magelhaens, Commerson. Hermite Island, Cape Horn, J. 
D. Hooker. Falkland Islands, in the neighbourhood of the 
sea, on peaty, rocky and sandy soil, very abundant :—not 
seen inland. 
This remarkable Grass is perennial, and forms, with its 
densely matted roots, crowded but isolated hillocks, or 
tumuli, 3-6 feet in height, and 3 or 4 feet in diameter, from 
which the leaves and stems spring. Roots fibrous, the fibres 
very tortuose. Stems, or culms, numerous, rising from the 
hillocks, erect, branched or divided only at the base, 3-4 
feet long, smooth, compressed, leafy, pale yellow, abounding 
in saccharine matter, and when young, esculent, even for 
man. Leaves, the lower ones very long, not unfrequently 5 to 
7 feet, exceeding the length of the stem, 1 inch broad at the 
base, and gradually tapering to an acuminated point, the upper 
side is channelled from the involute margins, from above the 
middle they are curved downwards, or are even pendent; the 
stem-leaves are gradually shorter upwards, erect, the sides 
involute, their colour a pale glaucous green. The sheaths 
are, like the stem, compressed, smooth, striated, cleft at 
