Guthbie Smith. Grasses of Tutira. 517 



come much less rough; but in a sward the plant is insignificant, 

 and must be only a very Worthless species from the pastoralist's 

 point of view, for lands that will only grow Deycaxia i/iiadriscla 

 are better out of cultivation altogether. When transplanted 

 into good soil this plant showed little improvement, and is 

 apparently unable to assimilate the more nutritious elements. 



Dichelachne crinita is one of the better-known native grasses, 

 and at once claims attention by its handsome erect plume of 

 feathery looking seed. This species is especially noticeable in 

 rough pasturage, and is well able to survive owing to the height 

 of the flowering stems, that pierce through the fern, and seed 

 above it. On steep banks Dichelachne crinita is always plentiful, 

 and grows equally well on hard clay or soft pumiceous soils. 

 On second-class lands it is certainly a useful grass. It 

 will survive, besides, on well-manured sheep-camps, and was 

 one of the three native species growing among Mr. J. N. 

 Williams's sample strips of turf at Frimley, on the alluvial 

 Hastings plains. To thus survive amidst English grasses on 

 rich soils proves an abundant vitality, and corroborates what 

 I have already mentioned as to the great growth made by this 

 species when transplanted into a good soil. There is a more 

 slender form (I), intermedia) also on the run ; this variety, 

 although much less common, seems also to lie a good g7'ass. 



Deschampsia ccespitosa is locally a very rare glass, and my 

 specimens were gathered from a single plant. It covers con- 

 siderable areas at the mouths of several of the rivers that feed 

 Lake Waikareinoana. 



Trisetum antarcticutn, is one of the natives very much in 

 evidence on edges of cuttings and such spots as sheep cannot 

 reach. On the higher country and the foothills of the Maungaha- 

 raru Range it is pretty common. It is an early grass, and, as the 

 seed-stems are rare in the turf and rough open lands, presumably 

 the plant is palatable to sheep, and therefore closely cropped. 



The slender form of this species has also been got on Tutira. 



Danthonia semiannularis is a species of first-rate importance 

 that was firmly established m 1.882. Even in those early days 

 it was widely spread, and has increased every year. On the 



whole, it is the best native grass we have, as it never gets very 



rank. It prefers good country and hard surfaces to pumiceous 



and Sandy soils, although it leaves the hardest anil driest clays 



to its cousin Danthonia pilosa. Even on Eair hill country it is 



worth sowing purposely, and there must be now in my own 

 district hundred-, of acres very largely, and In some areas almost, 

 exclusively, grassed with Danthonia semiannufaris. In good soils, 

 and where the sward is well worked by cattle, this grass would 



carry one and a quarter sheep per acre. 



