Danthonia. ] GRAMINE:. 887 
Var. Cheesemanii, Hack. MSS.—Culms slender. Leaves pale-green, com- 
plicate, compressed, not terete and rush-like when dry, strongly ribbed on both 
surfaces; margins and ribs on the back rough and scabrid. Panicle-branches 
scaberulous. Awn rarely twisted. 
NorrH Aanp Soutn Isuanps, Stewart Isnanp: From Mount Hikurangi and 
Mount Egmont southwards, abundant in hilly and mountain districts. Sea- 
level to 5000 ft. “« Snow-grass.”” Var. Cheesemanii: Open forests near the 
source of the Takaka River, Nelson, altitude 3000 ft., 7. F.C. 
A most abundant plant in the elevated hilly districts of the South Island, 
often forming the major portion of the vegetation over large areas. I agree with 
Professor Hackel in considering D. flavescens to be simply a broad-leaved state 
of D. Raouliti, in point of fact the two forms graduate into one another so 
insensibly that it is impossible to draw a strict line of demarcation between 
them. 
5. D. crassiuscula, 7. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 
224,.—Culms tufted, forming lax tussocks, stout, strict, erect, leafy, 
6-18 in. high. Leaves shorter or rarely longer than the culms, dis- 
tichous, rigid and coriaceous, curved, gradually narrowed to the tips 
but not drawn out into filiform points, strongly involute, com- 
pressed, smooth and polished on the back, with numerous thick 
veins in front, margins smooth; sheaths stout, much broader than 
the blade, smooth, grooved, margins thinner and scarious; ligules 
reduced to an obscure band of short stiff hairs. Panicle short, lax, 
broadly ovate, 14-3 in. long; branches few, spreading, 2—3-spiculate, 
and with the rhachis more or less silky-pubescent. Spikelets about 
+in. long without the awns, 4—7-flowered. Two outer glumes un- 
equal, lanceolate, 3-5-nerved, the longer frequently + the length of 
the entire spikelet. Flowering glumes densely silky at the base, 
and with long silky hairs on the margins and back for about half 
their length, 7-9-nerved, the nerves connected by transverse veins 
at about the level of the awn, tip deeply bifid, the lobes pointed but 
not awned; central awn 4-4 in. long, flat at the base and often 
twisted. Palea slightly shorter than the glume. 
SoutH Isnranp: Canterbury—Mountains above the Broken River, 7. F’. C.; 
Upper Waimakariri, Cockayne! Westland—Kelly’s Hill, Petrie! Otago— 
Mount Arnould, Hector Mountains, Petrie! mountains above Lake Harris, 
Longwood Range, Kirk! Srewarr Istanp: Mount Anglem, Kirk! 3500— 
6000 ft. 
Closely allied to D. Raoulii, but a smaller and proportionately stouter 
plant, with shorter compressed leaves not drawn out into filiform points, much 
smaller panicles with silky-pubescent branches, smaller spikelets with longer 
outer glumes, and with the nerves of the flowering glumes connected by trans- 
verse veinlets. 
6. D. pungens, Cheesem. n. sp.—Culms densely tufted, branched 
at the base, forming irregular patches about 1 ft. across, smooth, 
slender, rigid, 2-6in. high. Leaves mostly at the base of the culms 
and much shorter than them, distichous, 14-3 in. long, about + in. 
broad at the base, gradually tapering upwards into a pungent point, 
