Order GRAMINE^E. 



9. DANTHONIA BUCHANAN! 



BUCHANAN'S OAT GRASS. 



(Plate XXXV.) 

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



A TALL, tufted, glabrous, perennial grass, found 1000 2000 feet altitude. 

 Flowers January. Culms 2 3 feet high. Leaves 6 18 inches long, 

 J-inch broad, flat or involute, sheathing leaves short ; ligiile very short, 

 truncate, membranous, lacerate on top. Panicle contracted, 6 8 inches 

 long, branches few in distant pairs, i 2 inches long. Spikelets few, 

 alternate on the branches and clustered near the ends. Empty glumes 

 membranous, ovate-oblong, obtuse, serrate on" top, 3-nerved, pale yellow 

 with white margins. Staminiferous flowering glumes dark orange, 

 linear-oblong, pilose and fringed on the margins with long hairs, deeply 

 2-fid, 5-nerved, lobes obtuse, central awn as long as the glume, twisted at 

 bottom and bent near the middle at an obtuse angle. Palea of stami- 

 niferous florets bifid at top, 2-nerved. Fertile flowering glume glabrous, 

 thick and horny, shining, dark orange, ovate, obtuse, entire and ciliate 

 at top, 5-nerved. Palea of fertile floret, linear-obtuse, entire, i -nerved. 

 Scales oblong-acute, crowned with short cilia. Ovary elongate, narrow. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 



NOTE. The 5-nerved flowering glume of this species is a departure from the 

 constant 9-nerved in Danthonia. 



Little is known of this grass since it was first discovered near the 

 Wanaka Lake, Otago, by the Geological Survey in 1864. It is a tall oat- 

 like grass, the dark orange spikelets of which attract the attention very readily, 

 and suggest the idea of a cultivated plant ; the horses used by the survey party 

 which remained at the main camp for some weeks, fed greedily upon this grass 

 with great relish, and were noticed to prefer it to other grasses. The general 

 appearance of this species is more that of a fodder plant, than one peculiarly 

 adapted for pasture, and it would no doubt repay the expense of an experimental 

 trial, if any of the residents near the locality were to collect the seed. DISTRIBU- 

 TION IN NEW ZEALAND: HECTOR'S CAMP, MATUKITUKI VALLEY, 

 NEAR WANAKA LAKE. 





