Order GRAMINE^. 



1. DANTHONIA CUNNINGHAMIL 



SMALL FLOWERED OAT TUSSAC GRASS. 

 (Plate XXIX. ) 



DANTHONIA ANTARCTICA, VAR. B. LAXIFOLIA, Hook, fil., Fl. N.Z. I., 

 303. AGROSTIS PILOSA, A. Cunn., not A. Rich. DANTHONIA RIGIDA, 

 Hook, fil., FL, N.Z. L, t. 6gA., not Raoul. DANTHONIA CUNNINGHAMII, 

 Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. Flora, L, 332. 



A LARGE tussac grass, found from sea-level to 2500 feet altitude. 

 Flowers December January. Culms 35 feet high, J-inch diameter, 

 glabrous or pilose below. Leaves 34 feet long, coriaceous, concave, 

 {-inch broad, glabrous ; sheaths broad ; ligule o, or a narrow line of 



short hairs round the mouth of sheath. Panicle large, drooping, 10 18 



inches long, branches many or few in distant pairs, or single, very 

 slender, 612 inches long, pubescent Spikelets alternate on the 

 branches, \ |-inch long, 2 8-flowered. Empty glumes unequal. 

 3-nerved. Flowering glume deeply 2-fid, Q-nerved, glabrous or sprinkled 

 with hairs on lower half, fringed on margins with long hairs ; awn 

 recurved or straight, not flattened or twisted at the base, pedicel tufted 

 with long hairs. Palea bifid on top, and with long straggling hairs on 

 the margins. Scales linear-oblong, acute, crowned with long cilia. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES: NEW ZEALAND. 



This grass is widely distributed in New Zealand, but seldom anywhere 

 abundant. It varies much in size in different localities, but although found growing 

 under considerable differences of climate, little change can be observed in its struc- 

 ture, a small flowered form found on the shores of Hick's Bay, Auckland, being 

 nearly identical with specimens from the Mataura Valley, Southland. The sub- 

 alpine forms of this grass also shew little change, thus affording an argument in 

 favour of the two species D. fiaoulii and D. ftavescens being distinct from the present. 

 The twisted awn in the latter species is, however, of very little importance as a 

 specific distinction, being very inconstant, and apparently varying with the amount 

 of moisture in the atmosphere at the time of flowering. From some such cause the 

 broad awns of both D, Jtamilii, and D. Jlavescem, are frequently straight on 



