SPECIES OF GRASSLAND. 87 
the hard-tussock or fescue-tussock (Festuca novae-zealandiae) is 
dominant; it may be called the “ hard-tussock association” or the 
“« fescue-tussock association,’ either name being suitable. In certain 
areas, especially in the lowland belt, both tussocks occur in the 
association, but usually one is more abundant than the other. 
The other plants which make up the plant-formation are a mixture 
of shrubs, grasses, sedges, semi-woody plants, and herbs, many of 
them small and more or less insignificant. Some of the species are 
confined to the lowlands and some to the montane belt; nevertheless, 
the transition from one belt to the other is so gradual, and the 
members which they have in common so many, that it is hard to 
draw a line between the two. 
The number of lowland species is about 80. Their growth-forms 
are—trees and shrubs, 10; herbs and semi-woody plants, 50; grass- 
like plants, 15; rush-like plants, 2; ferns, 3. To go into details, 
some of the more common grasses are—the common oat-grass (varie- 
ties of Danthonia semiannularis) ; danthonia (varieties of Danthonia 
pilosa)—this not ascending, so far as is known, to more than 
3,000 feet altitude; the blue-grass (varieties of Agropyron scabrum) ; 
the long-haired plume- grass (Dichelachne crinita); the desert - 
danthonia (Danthonia Buchanan); the mountain - twitch (Triodia 
exigua). There are several sedges, the small grass-like Carex brevi- 
culmis being especially common, while two other small sedges 
-(C. Colensoi and C. inversa) are frequently present. The following 
low-growing herbs or semi-woody plants have flowers large enough 
to be noticeable: The grassland-buttercup (Ranunculus multiscapus) ; 
the small-leaved cranesbill (Geranium microphyllum); the short- 
flowered cranesbill (Geranium sessiliflorum var. glabrum, and probably 
other varieties)—this especially in the mountains; the yellow oxalis 
(Oxalis corniculata, in various varieties); several varieties of the 
long-stalked willow-herb (Hpilobium pedunculare); the pale willow- 
herb (Epilobium novae-zelandiae) ; the dichondra (Dichondra repens) ; 
the common convolvulus (Convolvulus erubescens); varieties of the 
slender bluebell (Wahlenbergia gracilis); the New Zealand bluebell 
(W. albomarginata)—in the mountains chiefly; the slender New 
Zealand daisy (Lagenophora pumila); the grassland-daisy (Brachy- 
come Sinclair) — chiefly in the mountains; the false edelweiss 
(Helichrysum bellidioides) (fig. 72)—in the mountains; the slender 
everlasting (Helichrysum filicaule); the common celmisia (varieties 
