I 70 GYMNOSTICHUM GRACILE. 



A variable grass, found near bush or in sheltered places. It is usually pros- 

 trate and straggling, numerously branched, and with the leaves often springing 

 from knotted articulations. When in flower, the empty glumes are frequently 

 absent, but they are sometimes represented by a pair of rigid-looking bristles, 

 which will be found on examination of fresh specimens, to be narrow, 1 -nerved, 

 rigid glumes, having an upper and lower relative position. The peculiar gluten 

 mass crowning the ovary, so characteristic in Triticum, is also present, showing a 

 close alliance to that genus. The value of this grass in pasture must, from its 

 rarity and straggling habit, be of little value, as it never forms a close sward, and 

 it is also doubtful if it could be improved by cultivation. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW 

 ZEALAND : NORTH ISLAND : WOODS AT PATEA AND TARAWERA 

 Colenso ; AUCKLAND Kirk. MIDDLE ISLAND : NELSON H. H. Travers ; 

 AKAROA, Raoul ; OTAGO LAKE DISTRICT Hector and Buchanan ; EAST 

 COAST, OTAGO Buchanan. 



Reference to Plate LVIII: Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4. Nervation 

 of empty glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation of Palea. 7. 

 Scale. 8. Section of ovary. 



