Order GRAMINE^E. 

 4. AGROSTIS SUIHJLATA. 



DWARF MOUNTAIN BENT GRASS. 

 (Plate XX. B.) 



ACROSIIS SUBULATA, Hook. fil. Fl. Ant., I., 95, t. 53. AGROSTIS PARVI- 

 KLORA, R. Brown. YAR. B. PERPUSILLA. Hook. fil. Fl. N.Z. I., 296. 

 A<;ROSTIS CAMNA. Linn. VAR. x. Hook, fil., N.Z. Fl. I. ,328. 



A MINUTE tufted grass, forming patches on the mountains at an altitude 

 of 5000 7000 feet. Flowers January. Roots fibrous, creeping. Stem 

 \ 2 inches high. Leaves much longer than the culms, involute ; ligule 

 long, linear, lacerate at top. Panicle i 1-inch long, nearly as broad, 

 generally hidden amongst the leaves near the ground. Spikelets few, 

 r.i s-inch long, flaccid. Empty glumes nearly equal, ovate-acuminate, 

 scabrid on the margins and keel, 3-nerved, lateral nerves very short. 

 Wowen'ng ghnne broadly ovate, truncate, finely serrate on top, 5-nerved, 

 awnless. Palca o. Scale entire, oblong, acute. Stamens 3, large. 

 Sty/e short : stigmas long, feathery. DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : 

 CAMPBEU/S ISLAND. NEW ZEALAND. 



The present species was thus named by Dr. Hooker, in his " Flora Antarctica, " 

 In. m specimens collected by himself in Campbell's Island, it was afterwards 

 described by him as \'m: K. of Ayroxtis canina, in his New Zealand Flora, and 

 Handbook of the Flora of New Zealand, possessing as it does greater structural 

 difference from At/runti* cmiina than Var. C 1 . ydida of the same species, (which 

 variety has recently been raised to the rank of a species under the name of 

 Agroatis Muelferi, by IVntham, in Vol. VII., Flora Australiensis, ) it has been 

 considered judicious in the present work, to restore Dr. Hooker's original name, 

 Ayrostis snbulata. This species has only been found in three localities in New 

 Zealand, but from its dwarf habit may have often been overlooked. Its close 

 growth and succulent nature indicate it as a good sheep grass, and it might repay 

 the expense of transplanting to lower ground, where it would no doubt increase in 

 size under the influence of a higher temperature. DISTRIBUTION IN NK\\ 

 XKALAND: NORTH ISLAND: RTAHINE MOl NT A I N -Colenso ; TAHA- 



