328 Transactions. — Botany. 



Akt. XXXVI. — Descriptions of New Native Plants. 

 By D. Petkie, M.A. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 25th February, 1901.] 



Danthonia planifolia, sp. nov. 



Stems solitary, not tufted, 1 ft. high or less, having one or 

 two young branches at the base, slender, glabrous, clothed 

 below with the withered sheaths of old leaves, sparingly leafy. 

 Leaves less than half as long as the culms, glabrous ; the 

 sheaths dilated, striate, pale- yellow ; the blades flat, acute, in 

 the cauline leaves much shorter than the sheath ; ligule a 

 band of longish slender hairs. Panicle ovate, open, about 2 in. 

 in length ; branches and pedicels silky. Spikelets few (6 to 

 12), rather large (-|in. long, fin. wide), more or less tinged 

 with purple, usually 4- or 5-flowered. Empty glumes nearly 

 equal, about as long as the spikelets, acute, the lower faintly 

 3 -nerved below, the middle nerve evident throughout, 

 the upper 3- to 5 -nerved. Flowering -glumes bifid; lobes 

 membranous, acute, not awned, with a broad middle awn 

 flattened and more or less twisted, a hairy band along the 

 middle, and a fringe of fine hairs along the lower edges ; 

 pedicel silky ; palea deeply bifid, with silky nerves and a 

 fringe of long hairs along the lower edges. 



Hab. Scrubby slopes leading up to the Clinton Saddle, 

 between Lake Te Anau and Milford Sound, on the eastern 

 side of the saddle (2,500 ft.). 



I formerly regarded this grass as a variety of Danthonia 

 australis, Buchanan, which it closely resembles in the size 

 and structure of its spikelets. It differs from Buchanan's 

 species in never forming tufts, in its flat leaves with dilated 

 sheaths, in its more numerous spikelets, and in the very 

 silky edges of the palea. I saw no plant with more than one 

 culm, but, as the steins usually show one or two branchlets 

 at the base, it is likely that more than one culm may be oc- 

 casionally developed. The usual course of events is for the 

 flowering-stem to fall off and a branch from the base to pro- 

 duce a new flowering-stem next season. The stems are fairly 

 stout at the base, and are evidently several years old. The 

 plant is of sparing occurrence in this habitat, and, as it is 

 rather inconspicuous, is by no means easy to detect. In half 

 :an hour's hunting not more than twenty specimens were col- 

 lected. It appears to have little economic value. 



