Graminee. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 297 
tinuous, or lobed or more open and pyramidal, with the lower branches remote and spreading. Glwmes 4-4 inch 
long, always longer than the flower, but very variable in this particular. Flower on a short, villous pedicel. Lower 
palea scaberulous, rarely quite smooth, hard, concave, contracted at the point, and then bifid or ending in four little 
awns very variable in relative length, great awn dorsal, inserted below the middle or towards the base, bent, twisted 
below ; upper palea shorter, with two nerves, that are scabrous at the back above. Stamens three.—I have examined 
a vast number of Tasmanian, Australian, and New Zealand specimens of this most variable Grass, vainly trying 
to divide them into species or constant varieties. Brown’s specimens of 4. montana (in Brit. Mus.) have a slender 
panicle ; florets as long as the glumes; palea rough, awned near the base. 
4. Agrostis Lyallii, Hook. fil; gracillima, glaberrima, foliis setaceo-involutis, panicula capillari 
effusa pauciflora, ramis primariis ternis elongatis trichotomis, pedicellis divaricatis, glumis zequalibus ovato- 
lanceolatis acutis dorso scaberulis flore + longioribus, palea inferiore sericea membranacea truncata apice 
erosa dorso ad medium aristata, arista palea duplo longiore, palea superiore hyalina nervis inconspicuis 
acuta v. breviter bifida, stylis basi remotis. 
Has. Middle Island; Milford Sound, Zyall. 
A very elegant species, of which I have only rather old specimens, having both flower and seed however. 
Culms tufted, very slender, 8—12 inches high, branched below, perfectly smooth, as are the involute setaceous filiform 
leaves. Panicle very large and widely spreading, of few branches and spikelets; rachis flexuous, at the few distant 
joints; branches ternate, capillary, spreading, an inch long before dividing into three hair-like flexuous branchlets, 
or long, single-flowered pedicels. Spikelets small,iinch long. Glumes equal, sharp, about one-third longer than the 
sessile membranous flower. Lower palea silky, truncate, toothed at the top, with a short awn from the back above 
the middle; upper shorter, acute, with the nerves hardly distinguishable.— This plant resembles Aira caryophyllea of 
Europe, but the panicle is much more slender, with longer branches, and the spikelets ave constantly one-flowered. 
5. Agrostis pilosa, A. Rich.; “panicula pedali erecta pyramidali, ramis semiverticillatis pluries 
ramosis pendulinis hirtellis, valvis dorso denticulatis, palea exteriore glumz pilosa. 4. Rich.” Flor. p. 134. 
t. 23. 
Has. Middle Island; Astrolabe Harbour, D’ Urville. 
I have seen no specimens of this plant, which, according to Richard’s description and figure, is very dis- 
tinct from any of the preceding, but allied to 4. Lyallii in habit. It may be distinguished by its large size (2 
feet and upwards), rough culm and leaves, which, as well as the branches of the panicle, are covered with short, 
stiff, spreading hairs. Ligula 3—4 lines long, membranous, torn at the top. Lower palea hairy (villous in the 
plate), bifid, four-nerved, with a dorsal straight awn; upper much shorter, glabrous, without any pedicel of a second 
flower. 
Os. Agrostis rigida and A. procera, A. Rich. Flora, do not appear, from the descriptions, to be species of 
this genus; they are possibly single-flowered varieties of species of Danthonia (see Trinius and Ruprecht, Gram. 
Stip. p. 5). 
Gen. XIV. ECHINOPOGON, Beauv. 
Spicule uniform, setula villosa accedente, coarctate. Glume zequales, flore equilonge. Palee 2, 
eeguilongee ; inferiore basi villosa, apice bifida, longe aristata, arista haud torta; superiore bicarinata, apice 
bidentata. Stamina 3. Ovarium barbatum.—Gramen scaberulum ; foliis planis; panicula spicaformi. 
The only known species is a very common extratropical, Australian, Tasmanian, and New Zealand, harsh, 
scabrid Grass. Spikelets crowded into an ovate or globose head, bristling with rigid spreading awns. Glumes 
equal, acuminate, rigid, as long as the solitary floret, which has a tuft of silky hairs at the base. Paleæ nearly 
equal: the lower with a bifid top, and rigid, not twisted awn; upper with a small, stiff, villous bristle at its base. 
Stamens three, Ovary bearded at the top. (Name from exwos, scabrid, and mwywv, a beard.) 
4E 
STERNE 
