‘918 GRAMINEE., (Festuca. 
dently biauricled, glabrous. Panicle oblong, contracted but rather lax; lower 
branches binate, 3-6-spiculate. Spikelets elliptic, 4 in. long, laxly 5-7-flowered. 
Two outer glumes linear-lanceolate. Flowering glumes lanceolate, minutely 
scaberulous, short-awned at the tip. 
Var. Matthewsii, Hack. l.c. 385.—Culms erect, quite smooth and glabrous, 
12-20in. high. Leaves almost equalling the culms, narrow, complicate, some- 
what acute at the tip, quite glabrous, ribbed when dry, furnished at the base 
with a brown pulvinate callus; sheaths rather lax, open, quite smooth; ligules 
2-lobed, lobes acute, ciliolate. Panicle 3-6in. long, ovate-oblong, spreading, 
lax, nodding; rhachis and branches scabrid; the latter binate, naked at the 
base, 1-3-spiculate at the tip. Spikelets large, ovate-lanceolate, 4—2in. long, 
5-7-flowered. 
NortH anD SoutH Isuanps: Forms resembling common European states 
occur in several localities, but may be introduced. Var. nove-zealandie: 
Ruahine Mountains, 4. Hamilton! Probably not uncommon in the South 
Island. Nelson— Clarence Valley, T. F. C. Canterbury—Mount Torlesse, 
T. F. C. Otago—Maniototo Plain, Cambrians, Dunstan Mountains, Petrie ! 
Var. Matthewsii: Otago—Mount Bonpland, H. J. Matthews! Petrie! Sea- 
level to 4500 ft. Sheep’s Fescue. 
A common grass in the temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere. 
The two varieties described above have a very different appearance from the 
majority of the European forms, particularly var. Matthewsi, which is remark- 
able for its large spikelets and curious swollen callus at the base of the leaf- 
blades. 
3. F. rubra, Linn. Sp. Plant. 74.—Culms 9-18 in. high, laxly 
or densely tufted, erect or geniculate at the base, smooth, striate, 
2-noded ; innovation-shoots both intravaginal and extravaginal, the 
extravaginal ones ascending or stoloniferous and creeping. Leaves 
3-6 in. long, narrow, those of the innovation-shoots and sometimes 
of the culms setaceous, but frequently the culm-leaves are broader 
and flat or involute when dry, 3—7-nerved, smooth, obtuse or sub- 
acute at the tip; sheaths of the innovation-shoots tight, smooth, 
closed almost to the mouth; ligules very short, glabrous, not 
auricled or obscurely so. Panicle very variable, 1-5 in. long, con- 
tracted, usually rather dense, erect or nodding, often secund ; 
rhachis angled, scabrid; branches solitary or the lowest binate, 
divided almost from the base, scaberulous. Spikelets elliptic- 
lanceolate to oblong, +~4in. long, laxly 4—8-flowered. Two outer 
glumes unequal; lower lanceolate, acuminate, l-nerved; upper 
larger, ovate - lanceolate, 3-nerved. Flowering glumes oblong- 
lanceolate, involute and rounded on the back, faintly 5-nerved, 
shortly awned; awn slender, scaberulous. Palea as long as the 
glume, linear-oblong, ciliolate on the keels.-—F. duriuscula, Hook. /. 
Kl. Nov. Zel. 1. 309; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 341 (for the most part, but 
not of Linn.). 
Nort AND SoutH IsLANDs, STEWART IsLAND: Abundant from the Hast 
Cape and the Upper Waikato southwards. Sea-level to 4500 ft. 
According to Professor Hackel, this constitutes the greater part of the 
F.. duriuscula of the ‘‘ Flora Nove-Zealandiz’’ and the Handbook, the true 
F', duriuscula probably not existing in an indigenous state in New Zealand. It 
