Order 



10. AGEOSTIS AVENOIDES. 



OAT-LIKE BENT GRASS. 



(Plate XXIV. A.) 

 AGROSTIS AVENOIDES, Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. Flora, I., 330. 



A SMALL glabrous grass. Flowers January February. Roots perennial. 

 Culms rigid, 6 12 inches high, slender. Leaves short, numerous, 

 involute, slender ; ligule short, truncate. Panicle much contracted, 

 branches very short, \ ^-inch long. Empty glumes rigid, scabrid on 

 the margins and keel, 3-nerved, lateral nerves (when present) very short. 

 Flowering glume sessile, narrow, truncate with 4 teeth, hard, 5-nerved, 

 scabrid on the nerves, silky at the base ; awn nearly twice as long as the 

 glume, proceeding from the middle of the back, twisted, recurved. 

 Palea nearly as long as the glume, 2 -nerved, with a long silky pedicel at 

 back. Scales entire, variable, obtuse or acute. Stigmas nearly sessile. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : NEW ZEALAND. 



An abundant grass in several districts of the South Island, from near sea-level to 

 8000 feet altitude ; it is freely eaten by all kinds of stock, and may be considered 

 as a good pasture grass, the foliage is short and close in growth, and assists in many 

 places in forming a sward amongst the Danthonia tussacs. This grass, through 

 injudicious burning by stock-owners, has suffered much during the last twenty 

 years, and is now chiefly found on the banks of creeks and damp places. DISTIM- 

 ni-TioN IN Xi:\\ ZKALAND: SOUTH ISLAND: NELSON, SUB-ALPINE 

 DISTRICTS H. H. Travers ; CANTERBURY Sinclair, Haast, Armstrong; 

 OTAGO LAKE DISTRICT, (3000 feet altitude) Hector and Buchanan ; 

 CLUTHA RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES Buchanan. 



Reference to Plate XXIV. A. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet, 3. Floret. 

 4. Nervation of empty glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation 

 of Palea. 7, 7'. Scales. 8. Ovary. 



