888 GRAMINEX. [Danthoma. 
strict, erect, rigid and coriaceous, involute, almost equitant at the 
base, finely striate, glaucous; margins thickened, smooth; sheaths 
compressed, grooved ; ligules reduced to a narrow band of short 
white hairs. Panicle small, lax, ovate, 1-14in. long, of 3—8-spike- 
lets; branches few, slender, silky. Spikelets about 4in. long with- 
out the awns, 3—5-flowered. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, 
almost as long as the spikelet, lanceolate, membranous, 3—d-nerved. 
Flowering glumes silky at the base, and equally clothed with silky 
hairs for half their length, 7-9-nerved, deeply 2-fid at the apex, the 
lobes lanceolate, acute but not awned; central awn flattened and 
usually spirally twisted at the base. Palea almost as long as the 
flowering glume, ciliate on the nerves and silky on the mnargins near 
the base. 
Stewart IsntaAnp: Smith’s Lookout, altitude 1000 ft., Kirk! 
A curious little plant, at once recognised by the flattened rigid and pungent- 
pointed leaves. 
7. D. australis, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 31.—Forming extensive 
patches on alpine or subalpine slopes. Culms much branched 
at the base, prostrate or decumbent and covered with the remains 
of the old leaves, ascending and then erect above, quite glabrous, 
6-18in. high. Leaves numerous towards the base of the culms 
and much shorter than them, distichous, inbricate, strict, rigid, 
erect or curved to one side, 2-6 in. long, about #,in. broad, closely 
involute, smooth and polished, acute at the tip; sheaths short, 
closely overlapping, tight, much broader than the blade; ligules 
reduced to a line of silky hairs. Panicle small, lax, 1-2 in. long, of 
3-8 spikelets on slender capillary silky-pubescent branches. Spike- 
lets 3-2 in. long, 4—7-flowered. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, 
lanceolate, acuminate, membranous, d—7-nerved, trom # to 8 the 
length of the spikelet. Flowering glumes silky at the base and with 
the back and margins fringed with silky hairs for more than half 
their length, deeply 2-fid at the tip, the divisions produced into 
short scabrid awns, 7-9-nerved; central awn 4-4 in. long, slender, 
flat and spirally twisted at the base. Palea shorter than the 
glume, linear-oblong.—D. Raoulii var. australis, Buch. mm Trans. 
N.Z. Inst. iv. (1872) 224. 
SoutH Istanp: Not uncommon on the mountains of Nelson, Canterbury, 
and Westland, altitude 3500-6000 ft. ‘* Carpet-grass”’; ‘‘ Hassock-grass.’’ 
A well-marked species, often covering acres on the higher mountains of 
Nelson and North Canterbury, usually affecting steep slopes. After the melting 
of the snow in early summer, which usually leaves the culms and leaves pointing 
downhill, these slopes are most slippery and treacherous to cross. There is 
a specimen in Mr. Petrie’s herbarium marked ‘‘ Campbell Island, J. Buchanan.” 
8. D. oreophila, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 406.-— 
Culms densely tufted, much branched at the base, slender, erect, 
leaty, 6-12in. high. Leaves subdistichous, 2-5 in. long by 74-45 in. 
