106 Transactions. — Botany. 



lines long, lanceolate-acuminate, 5-nerved, keel and margins 

 scabrid, margins hyaline, with a small tuft of hairs at the 

 base ; the next 8 lines long including the long awn, narrow 

 ovate-acuminate, 7-nerved, the awn long nea.rly -^in., setaceous, 

 straight, scabrid, acute ; the uppermost or flowering glume 

 3-nerved, margins hyaline, the lower two-thirds entire, slightly 

 scaberulous on keel, tip irregular jagged and scabrid; awn short 

 and stout. Pale 3 lines long, linear-lanceolate, 1-nerved, tip 

 obtuse, margins of the lower half entire, of the upper half and 

 tip scabrid ciliate. Scales sub-flabellate or sub-quinquilateral, 

 7-uerved, tip produced, margins irregular and laciniate. 

 Anthers 4, linear, 2-| lines long, both ends bifid, scarcely 

 exserted. Stigmas long, diverging, ovate-acuminate, bushy, 

 much branched, branches compound. Ovary oblong, sub- 

 truncate. Grain not seen. 



Hab. In a thicket on the banks of a small streamlet 

 south of Dannevirke, County of Waipawa (and only in that 

 locality) ; 1887-88 : W. G. 



Ohs. This species is pretty closely allied to M. polynoda, 

 Hook f., but differs from that species in several particulars — 

 as, in its much longer and branched paiiicle, with long pedicels 

 to the spikelets ; in the tuft of hairs at the base of the inner 

 pair of empty glumes, and in both of them being long-awned ; 

 in the difference in their nervature , in the tip of the pale 

 being obtuse and ciliate ; and in the form and nervature of its 

 scales. It is, also, a larger and more robust plant. 



Genus 12. Apera, Adanson. 

 1. A. imvpurascens , sp. nov. 



A tall erect and nodding densely-tufted graceful perennial 

 grass, having numerous short stout striate sheaths, with long 

 sub-aristate mucros at base. Stems slender, distantly leafy, 

 knotted, striate, smooth, 2ft. long. Culms 3ft.-3ft. 6in. high, 

 smooth, slender, nodding, purple above pale straw-colour 

 below, 8in.-10in. long downwards from panicle. Leaves 

 membranaceous, narrow, 9in. - lOin. long, 14- lines wide, 

 sub-glaucous and striate above, edges and midrib slightly 

 scaberulous, tips finely acuminate, setaceous ; sheaths long, 

 ciliate at top and margins ; ligule membranous, truncate, pro- 

 duced in front, very short behind. Panicle large, nodding, 

 pendulous, 2ft. -2ft. lOin. long, very open, loosely whorled, 

 the lower whorls distant, 3in.-4in. apart, each containing 6-8 

 spreading capillary branches, the two largest 6in.-7in. long 

 and twice whorled, their branchlets sub-rigid, angular, com- 

 pressed, flexuous, scaberulous. Pedicels 4-5 lines long, wiry, 

 flexuous, scabrid, thickened at tips. Spikelets small, ^^in. 

 long, purple. Empty glumes longer than the flowering ones, 

 sub -ovate -acuminate, 1-nerved with slightl}- scaberulous 



