

Order GRAMINE^. 



7. DANTHONIA PILOSA. 



PURPLE AWNED OAT GRASS. 



DANTHONIA PILOSA, R. Brown. Hook, fil., Fl. Tasm., II., 120; Fl. 

 N.Z., I., 303. DANTHONIA PILOSA, R. Brown. Hook, fil., Fl. N.Z., I., 

 303. DANTHONIA SEMI-ANNULARIS, R. Brown. Hook. fil. VAR. B. 

 PILOSA, Handb. N.Z. Flora, L, 333. DANTHONIA PILOSA, R. Brown. 

 Benth. Flora Australiensis, VII., 594. 



A SLENDER or rigid tufted perennial grass, found from sea-level to 6000 

 feet altitude. Flowers November January. Culms i 2 feet high, 

 pilose. Leaves involute, filiform or flat, pilose ; sheathing leaves short ; 

 ligule o, or a line of short hairs round mouth of sheath, with a tuft of long 

 hairs on each side. Panicle 2 3 inches long, contracted, more open 

 when in flower, with a few erect branches, or simply racemose. Spikelets 

 few, J J-inch long, 4 8-flowered. Empty glumes nearly equal, longer 

 than the spikelet, 5 y-nerved. Flowering glume glabrous, deeply 2-fid, 

 9-nerved, with a circle of long hairs near the base, and with distant 

 small pencils of hairs on margins and back, lateral awns as long as the 

 glume, central awn \ longer than the lateral awns, straight, slightly 

 twisted at bottom, awns and tops of florets purple, pedicel with tufts of 

 long hairs. Palea truncate, or slightly bifid. Scales linear-oblong, 

 acuminate, crowned with long cilia. DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : 

 AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA, NEW ZEALAND. 



The present and the following species with their varieties, form an important 

 part of the pastures of New Zealand at the present time, and as they were still 

 more abundant when the land was first stocked, no doubt much of the well-known 

 fattening qualities of the original pasture was indebted to these grasses, 

 Although many grasses are permanently destroyed by overstocking and other 

 causes, the DantJionias appear to possess an inherent recuperative power, which 

 enable them at any time when the destroying agency is removed, to renew 

 their growth and spread in abundance. This may be partly ascribed to their 

 capacity of ripening abundance of seed, and their ready adaptation to climatic 

 changes and differences of soil. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND : FROM THE 

 NORTH CAPE TO STEWART ISLAND. 



