Order GRAMINE^E. 



5 DANTHONIA AUSTRALIA N.S. 



WIRY LEAVED OAT GRASS. 



(Plate XXXI.) 



DANTHONIA RAOULII, Steud. VAR. A. AUSTRALIS, Buchanan. Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst, IV., 224. 



A SX\IALL rigid grass, growing in dense tussac masses at 6000 feet 

 altitude. Flowers January. Ctilms 8 16 inches high. Leaves i 4 

 inches long, glabrous, erect, very narrow and involute, rigid, setaceous, 

 distichous, secund on the outer culms ; ligule o, or a line of short hairs 

 round the mouth of the sheath, and long cilia on each side. Panicle 

 i ij inches long, open, 2-branched. Spikelets 3 5, with generally 

 2 spikelets on each branch, and one on the terminal rachis, J-inch long, 

 5 7-flowered. Empty glumes nearly equal, 5 and y-nerved. Flou'ering 

 glume deeply 2-fid and shortly awned on the lobes, 9-nerved, glabrous, 

 with silky margins and back fringed with long hairs, awn flattened and 

 twisted, pedicel tufted with long hairs. Palea bifid at top, with straggling 

 hairs on the margins. Scales ovate-acute, crowned with short cilia. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : NEW ZEALAND. 



This grass is found at considerable altitudes in the South Island, and is covered 

 by the snows of winter during several months in the year. It forms a very coarse 

 herbage for sheep, although the early growth in spring may be more grateful and 

 nutritious. The close compacted mass of stems, sheathing leaves and roots, become 

 blanched and succulent, and are much relished by rats, who swarm everywhere on 

 the pastures of the South Island, and are purely vegetable feeders in such local- 

 ities. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND : SOUTH ISLAND : KAIKOtTRA 

 MOUNTAINS, (40006000 feet) J. Buchanan ; LAKE GUYON DISTRICT, 

 (50006000 feet) H. H. Travers. 



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

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

 Palea. 7 . Scale. 8. Ovary, styles, and stigmas. 



