Peteie. — Oil Neio Native Plants. 271 



8. Danthonia pallida, sp. nov. 



A short densely-tufted alpine grass. 



Culms branched at the base, leafy below, slender, erect, 

 smooth, lOin. high or less. 



Leaves distichous, glabrous, about one-third the length of 

 the culms ; sheaths inflated, slightly grooved ; blades involute, 

 wiry, tapering to a very slender point, deeply grooved above, 

 rough at the edges ; ligule a narrow ciHate or jagged ridge with 

 -a few long ciliate hairs at each end. 



Panicle ovate, l|-in. long or less ; branches few, solitary, 

 filiform, smooth, bearing one or two spikelets, and having a 

 few cihate hairs at their origin. 



Spikelets ^V^r. long and half as broad, pale, 4-5-flowered, 

 cuneate in outline. Outer glumes unequal, subacute, mem- 

 branous and hyaline, nerves very obscure or wanting, almost 

 as long as the spikelets. Flowering-glumes very membranous, 

 with many faint nerves, cut at the top into two subtriangular 

 acute nerveless lobes, between which lies the rather broad 

 reflexed untwisted awn, lower edges fringed with long ciliate 

 hairs, which also sparingly clothe the lower half of the midrib ; 

 basal pedicel densely pilose. Palea bifid at the top, with ciliate 

 nerves and long delicate hairs fringing its lower edges. 



Hah. Kelly's Hill, Otira Eiver (4,000ft.). 



This plant differs from its nearest ally, D. australis, 

 J. Buchaiian, in its untwisted awn, the unawned lobes of the 

 flowering-glume, and the glabrous branches of the panicle. It 

 flowers very sparingly. 



9. Poa dipsacea, sp. nov. 



Culms stout, smooth, glabrous, 6in. to 18in. high, leafy 

 below, branched and decumbent at the base, and rooting at 

 the lower joints. 



Leaves considerably shorter than the culms, narrow in- 

 volute, or incurved at the edges, smooth, deeply striate, 

 sheaths inflated, twice as broad as the blades ; ligule broad, 

 very short, rather membranous. 



Panicle broadly ovate, 2-|in. to 4^in. long; the branches 

 usually in pairs, divaricating, glabrous, bearing few large 

 spikelets near their ends. 



Spikelets pale-brown, about fin. long and half as broad, 

 5-8-flowered. Outer glumes as long as the flowering, mem- 

 branous, pale-brown, acute or subacute, obscurely 3-nerved. 

 Flowering-glumes yellowish-brown, acute or subacute, 5- to 

 7-nerved, membranous at the sides, the base with a tuft of 

 long straight hairs reaching to the middle of the midrib, 

 the upper half of which is finely scabrid ; the outer nerves 

 more or less clothed with fine hairs. Palea somewhat shorter 

 than the glume, with strongiy-ciliate nerves. 



