Order GRAMINE^E, 



11. AGBOST1S YOUNGJI 



YOUNG'S BENT GRASS. 



(Plate XXV.) 

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



A TALL robust grass. Flowers December February. Roots perennial. 

 Culms i 3 feet high, glabrous or slightly scaberulous. Leaves flat, 

 \ J-inch broad. Panicle 4 6 inches long, erect, much contracted, 



ixuose, branches very short. Spikelets \ J-inch long. Empty glumes 

 rigid, glabrous, scabrid on the margins and keel, nerveless. Flowering 

 nearly as long, truncate with 4 teeth, pedicelled, 5-nerved, scabrid 

 m the nerves ; awn very short, nearly terminal or proceeding at J from 

 the top. Palea nearly as long as the glume, bifid, 2-nerved ; pedicel 



lort with silky hairs, Scales entire, linear-lanceolate. Ovary plano- 



mvex. Styles very short. Stigmas long, feathery. DISTRIBUTION OF 



>ECIES : NEW ZEALAND. 



A common grass in the South Island, varying much in size according to soil 

 id situation, the foliage in the larger states is coarse but succulent, and would 

 form a valuable constituent of mixed fodder. In the district between the Clutha 

 id Mataura Rivers, Otago, this grass is abundant, and is much eaten by stock. 

 In all places where undrained lands and abundant rains are common, all the species 

 the Agrostis family will possess much value as pasture grasses, but however 

 lardy they may be, they enjoy no immunity from overfeeding by either stock or 

 >bits, and ought to benefit by periods of rest, or the finer kinds will inevitably 

 killed by sun and frosts. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND : SOUTH 

 tSLAND : NELSON-H. H. Travers ; CANTERBURY Haast ; KAIHIKU 

 IILLS, OTAGO Buchanan. 



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

 Nervation of empty glume. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. (j. Nerva- 

 of Palea. 7. Scale. 8. Ovary, 2 views. 



