Plate 228.- KCELERIA KIJRTZII. 



Family GRAMINE^E.] [Genus KCELERIA, Pees. 



Kceleria Kurtzii, Hack, in Bolel. Acad. Sc. de Cordoba, xvi (1900). 261 ; Cheesem. Man N Z 



Fl. 897. ' ' ' 



Kceleria Kurtzii, whicli in this work is taken to include the whole of the Kceleriw 

 found in New Zeahmd, was first gathered by Sir David Munro on the " Aglionby 

 Plains, near Nelson," about 1851. As the" interior of the South Island and its 

 vegetation became gradually known to Europeans Kceleria was found to have a 

 fairly general distribution, and it has been recorded from most districts between 

 Collingwood in the north and Foveaux Strait in the south. It has also been 

 recorded by Mr. Buchanan from Miramar (near Wellington), but as it has not been 

 collected by any other botanist I fear some mistake was made in the identification. 

 At the same time, it is highly probable that it occurs at high elevations on the 

 Tararua or other of the higher mountain-ranges of the North Island. In a similar 

 manner, I can hardly doubt that it will ultimately be found in Stewart Island. It 

 is mostly seen in hilly and mountainous localities, where it ascends to 4,500 ft. 

 altitude, but it descends to sea-level in many stations. 



In the "Flora," and again in the "Handbook," Sir .J. D. Hooker referred the 

 New Zealand forms to the northern A', cristata. But Professor Hackel, who did me 

 the favour of examining a full series, has informed me that our plant differs from 

 K. cristata in the minutely 2-toothed tip of the flowering-glume with a short awn 

 on the back below the sinus, and that in K. cristata the flowering-glume is entire 

 and not awned. Professor Hackel further identified our plant with the South 

 American K. Kurtzii, informing me that Argentine specimens of that plant were 

 " quite identical with the New Zealand ones." I therefore adopted Hackel's views 

 in the Manual. In Dr. Domin's recent monograph of Kceleria (" Bibliotheca 

 Botanica," heft 65) the New Zealand forms are considered to form three distinct 

 endemic species, mainly distinguished by minute differences in the size and position 

 of the terminal awn of the flowering-glume. These are characters which have 

 always appeared to me to be trivial and inconstant. 



Kceleria Kurtzii is not without economic value, although its peld of herbage 

 is comparatively small. It is readily eaten by both cattle and sheep. 



Plate 228. Kceleria Kurtzii, drawn from specimens collected in the Hooker Valley, Jlonnt Cook 

 district, at an altitude of 2,500 ft. Fig. 1, tip of leaf (x 8) ; 2, li!,'ule of leaf (x 8) ; 3, spikelct (x 6) ; 

 4, flower, without any awn (x 8) ; 5, flowering-glume (x 8) ; 6, palea (x 8) ; 7, spikelet, \vith awned 

 flowers ( X 8) ; 8, flowering-glume from same ( x 8) ; 9, lodicules, stamens, and ovaiy ( x 8) ; 

 10, lodicules and ovary more highly magnified (x20). 



