30 DICHELACHNE STIPOIDES. 



r 3 feet high, wiry, smooth. Leaves longer than the culms, very 

 slender, erect, involute. Panicle strict, erect, 4 6 inches long, branches 

 few, short, erect. Spikelets \ J-inch long. Empty glumes membranous, 

 J |-inch long, narrow, lanceolate, acuminate, 3-nerved. Flowering 

 glume shorter, bifid, covered with silky spreading hairs, 5-nerved ; awn 

 flexuose, two and a half times the length of the glume, glabrous. Palea 

 narrow, bifid, covered with silky hairs, 2-nerved. Scales large. Anthers 

 very long, narrow. Ovary glabrous. Styles short. Stigmas plumose. 

 Grain long, narrow. DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : AUSTRALIA, 

 TASMANIA, NEW ZEALAND. 



This grass, which is only found near the sea or saline estuaries, is of little 

 value as food for stock ; and, from its very rigid, non-succulent habit, is not 

 likely to be improved by cultivation. It is only grazed by horses and cattle 

 during its flowering and seeding season ; and the hard wiry nature of its foliage 

 renders it worthless, either in pasture or as fodder. It might, however, be 

 utilized in the manufacture of paper, as it possesses a strong fibrous structure, 

 and is apparently as well adapted for that purpose as the tussac Danthonias of 

 the South Island, the latter, from experiments, having proved to be eminently 

 suited for paper-making. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND : NORTH ISLAND : 

 EAST COAST Banks and Solander ; BAY OF ISLANDS AND AUCKLAND 

 Sinclair; ISTHMUS OF AUCKLAND, THAMES, WAIKATO, GREAT 

 BARRIER ISLAND Kirk ; TITIRANGI Cheeseman ; KAWAU ISLAND 

 Buchanan. 



Reference to Plate XIV.: Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 

 4, 4'. Nervation of empty glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Palea. 

 7. Scale. 8. Ovary, scale, stamens, and feathery stigmas. 



