DANTHONIA SEMI-ANNULARIS. 85 



8. DANTHONIA SEMI-ANNULARIS, VAK. GRACILIS. 



SHEEP OAT GRASS. 



(Plate XXXIV. 2. B.) 



DANTHONIA GRACILIS, Hook. fil. Fl. N.Z. I., 304 t. 693. DANTHONIA 

 SEMI-ANNULARIS, R. Brown. Hook. fil. Var. C. GRACILIS, Handb. Fl. 

 N.Z. I., 333. 



A SLENDER fine-leaved perennial grass. Flowers November January. 

 Culms 12 1 8 inches high. Leaves numerous very narrow, involute, 

 glabrous or pilose. Panicle ij 2 inches long, contracted. Spikelets 

 J-inch long. Empty glumes barred, purple. Flowering glume pilose on 

 lower half, with a circle of long hairs under the lobes, lateral awns one- 

 third the length of glume ; central awn 4-times longer than lateral awns, 

 straight and twisted slightly at bottom, pedicels with tufts of long hairs. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF VAR. GRACILIS : SAME AS SPECIES. 



This is a valuable sheep grass, often forming a thick close sward ; it might 

 also be cultivated as a lawn grass. 



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

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

 of Palea. 7. Scale. 



NOTE. No specimen of D . semi-annularis, Var. B. Unarede, is in the Museum 

 Herbarium, and therefore cannot be figured. 



