Order GRAMINR^). 



8. DANTHONIA SEMI-ANNULARIS. 



NEW ZEALAND OAT GRASS. 



(Plate XXXIV.) 



DANTHONIA SEMI-ANNULARIS, R. Brown. Hook, fil., Fl. Tasm., II., 120. 

 ARUNDO SEMI-ANNULARIS, Labill. PI. Nov. Holl., I., 26 t. 33. DAN- 

 THONIA VARIA, Nees, in PI. Preiss, II., 103. DANTHONIA SETACEA, 

 Hook, fil., Fl. Tasm. II., 121, not of R. Brown. DANTHONIA ERIANTHA, 

 Lindl. in Mitch. Three Exped. II., 307. DANTHONIA GRACILIS, Hook, 

 fil., Fl. N.Z., I., 304, t. 693. DANTHONIA SEMI-ANNULARIS, R. Brown. 

 Hook, fil., Fl. N.Z. I., 304. DANTHONIA SEMI-ANNULARIS, R. Brown. 

 Hook, fil., Handb. Fl. N.Z. I., 333. 



A VALUABLE perennial pasture grass, abundant from sea-level to 6000 

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

 glabrous. Leaves involute, filiform or flat, glabrous, sheathing leaves 

 long ; ligule o, or a line of short hairs round the mouth of sheath, and a 

 tuft of long hairs on each side. Panicle 3 5 inches long, contracted, 

 'open only when in flower, shortly branched. Spikelets few, \ J-inch 

 long, 4 8-flowered. Empty glumes white or purplish, nearly equal, 

 5-nerved. Flowering glumes glabrous, deeply 2-fid, Q-nerved, with a 

 circle of long hairs under the lobes, and a second circle of shorter hairs 

 near the bottom, lateral awns J as long as the glume, central awn 

 5 times longer than the lateral awns, straight and slightly twisted at 

 bottom, pedicel with tufts of long hairs. Palea bifid. Scale 3-lobed, 

 and crowned with long cilia. DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : AUSTRA- 

 LIA, TASMANIA, NEW ZEALAND. 



This is a valuable pasture grass, proving permanent on dry uplands where 

 introduced species die out, it is also well adapted as a fodder grass, having con- 

 siderable bulk on good soil. In many districts of the South Island before the 

 introduction of exotic grasses, the natural pasture, of which this grass formed a 

 prominent part, was known by the early settlers to be very fattening to stock, as 

 on occasions when horses or cattle strayed into any remote valleys beyond the 

 settlements, and remained for some time, they always became extremely fat ; 

 in the South Island, however, repeated burnings and over-feeding by 



