Petrik. — On New Plants. 395 



more or less ciliate along the margin and the midrib, 

 sparingly webbed at and above the base ; palea almost as 

 long as the glume, 2-nerved, nerves ciliate. 



Rob. Sphagnum bogs at the Chatham Islands, where it 

 was collected by Messrs. L. Cockayne and F. A. D. Cox in 

 January, 19U0. 



Mr. Cockayne writes me that he considers this a grass of 

 great economic importance. He has seen about 100 acres of 

 worthless quaking peat bog, from which the natural covering 

 of heath and sedge had been burned off, occupied so closely by 

 this grass that the land looked like a planted cornfield. He 

 thinks it will prove of great value in wet, sour lands. The 

 rhizomes spread with such vigour that it would not be readily 

 eaten out by stock. 



In my collection are specimens of this grass from the 

 Auckland or Antipodes Islands, collected by Mr. T. Kirk, and 

 sent to me under the name of " Festuca scoparia, Hook, f." 

 It differs from the typical plant of the Chatham Islands in the 

 long, rigid, involute leaves equalling the culms, in the nearly 

 linear panicle, and in the soft pubescence of the glumes. It 

 is clearly a form of the present species, and presents only 

 such subvarietal differences as might be expected from the dif- 

 ference of habitat combined with long isolation. It is no 

 doubt the same grass as Mr. Buchanan referred to Poa foliosa, 

 Hook. f. It is much more closely related to Poa anceps, 

 Forster. 



8. Agropyrum coxii, sp. nov. 



Densely tufted, slender, leafy, about 18 in. high. Leaves 

 longer than the culms, very slender, involute, terete, perfectly 

 smooth, limp and pliant, midrib and striae obscure, the lower 

 incurved edges delicately serrate. Sheaths much shorter than 

 the blades, and three or four times as broad, smooth, finely 

 puberulent, striate but not grooved; ligule short. Culms erect 

 or slightly geniculate, slender, leafy to the base of the flower- 

 ing-spike, which is 3 in. long. Kachis once branched at the 

 base, the branch short and bearing two or three spikelets. 

 Spikelets (including the awns), T 7 ^-in. long, 3- to 5-flowered, the 

 lower pedicellate, the upper sessile. Empty glumes half as 

 long as the spikelet or less, unequal ; the lower narrow-linear, 

 acute, ending in a terete scabrid point, midrib obscure ; the 

 upper narrow-lanceolate, 3-nerved below, produced into a long 

 terete scabrid point. Flowering -glumes coriaceous, boat- 

 shaped, produced into a long, tapering, scabrid awn that is as 

 long as the glume or longer than it, faintly nerved, finely 

 scabrid, serrate along most of the back ; veins of the palea 

 prominent, remotely ciliate. 



Hah. Seaside rocks and sands at the Chatham Islands. 

 Collected by Messrs. L. Cockayne and F. A. D. Cox. 



