Petrie. — New Native PJianer ogams. 37 



Panicle narrow-ovate, 6-10 cm. long ; branches in whorls of 3 or fewer, 

 sparingly subdivided, bearing few spikelets; rhachis glabrous. 



Spikelets on long slender glabrous or sparsely pilose pedicels, large 

 (10-13 mm. long without the awns), 5-6-flowered ; empty glumes slightly 

 unequal, f the length of the spikelet, lanceolate, acute, glabrous, pale, mem- 

 branous, 3-7-nerved below, the median nerve alone reaching to the top, 

 nerves greenish, scarious at the edges, the upper part glabrous the lower 

 part pilosely hairy at the base back and sides, deeply bifid at the top, 

 the lateral teeth scarious and gradually narrowed into short ciliate awns ; 

 central awn from between the teeth, as long as the glume or longer, 

 flattened and twisted below and ciliate along the edges ; palea as long as 

 the flowering-glume, strongly 2-nerved, the nerves pilosely ciliate and the 

 incurved edges pilosely silky below. 



Hob.— End Peak, Lake Hauroto, 4,000 ft, ; J. Crosby Smith ! Top of 

 Longwood Range, Southland, 3,000 ft. 



This grass differs from D. ovata in the character of the awns, the median 

 one being conspicuously flattened and twisted at the base, and in the terete 

 wiry almost filiform leaves clothed with appressed stiff hairs. The plate 

 accompanying the description of Buchanan's species shows the leaves more 

 or less flat, with spreading distant or sparse soft hairs. He lays special 

 stress on the " straight subulate awns" and on the absence of twisting in 

 the median one. The drawing, moreover, shows a series of distinct pencils 

 of hairs on the flowering-glumes that is wholly alien to the present plant. 

 No specimen of his grass is known to exist in any herbarium. 



9. Danthonia Buchanani Hook. f. var. tenuis var. nov. 



Folia setaceo-filiformia, cnlmis breviora. Panicula linearis, =b 3 cm. 

 longa. 



Spiculae quam in typo breviores angustioresque, 6 mm. longae. 



Grlumae floriferae annulo piloso medio inferiusque flocco pilorum brevi 

 orum unico a latere utroque indutae, basi glabrae vel sparse pilosae ; arista 

 terminali setacea, brevi, recta ; dentibus lateralibus acutis vel acuminatis, 

 brevibus, in aristas haud productis. 



Leaves filiform-setaceous, shorter than the culms. 



Panicle linear, about 3 cm. long. 



Spikelets shorter and narrower than in the type, 6 mm. long. 



Flowering-glumes with a narrow band of stiff hairs across the middle 

 of the back, and a single small tuft of shorter hairs lower down on each 

 side ; base and lower part of the glume glabrous or sparsely pilose. 



Median awn setaceous, short, straight ; lateral teeth short, acute or 

 acuminate, not produced into awns. 



Hab. — Swampy Hill (Dunedin), 1,500 ft.; Upper Waipori (Tuapeka 

 County), 2,000 ft. ; Mount Ida (Maniototo County), 3,000 ft. 



In districts where it is abundant this variety forms an important element 

 in the upland pastures of Otago. 



10. Danthonia semiannularis R. Br. var. nigricans var. nov. 



Grramen D. semiannulari R. Br. var. setifolia Hook. f. subsimile ; differt 

 spiculis multo brevioribus, flosculis minoribus, glumis vacuis atro-brunneis 

 ac a marginibus late scarioso-pallidis, lobis glumarum floriferum lateralibus 

 valde delicatulis scariosis in aristas haud productis, culmis folia multo 

 superantibus. 



