Graminee. | FLORA OF TASMANIA. 113 
filiform, with a very few-flowered panicle, at others stout, 2 feet high.— Leaves involute, smooth or downy. Panicle 
pale-coloured and shining, 2-6 inches long, narrow, much like that of Dichelachne crinita, drooping, covered with 
the long flexuose awns. Glumes ciliate. Lower palea narrow, rigid, firm, smooth or scaberulous, half as long as the 
shorter awns. Long awn often purple, twice or thrice as long as the glumes, bent, twisted. Upper palea narrow, 
with two nerves, ciliated towards the entire top. 
Gen. XII. AGROSTIS, ZL. 
Glume 2, uniflore, subeeguales, carinatee, mutice, flore majores. Vos sessilis v. pedicellatus, inter- 
dum basi rudimento secundi suffultus. Palee 2, inferior mutica v. dorso aristata; arista haud aut vix 
tortili; superior bicarinata, interdum minima v. obsoleta. Sguamule 2, subintegre. Stamina 3. Cary- 
opsis libera.—Gramina cespitosa ; folis planis involutisve; paniculis diffuse ramosis, ramis sapius verti- 
cillatis, rarius brevibus v. in spicam cylindraceam confertis. 
A large genus of Grasses, most abundant in temperate and cold climates, advaneing as near to either Pole as 
any other phenogamic plants do.—Culms often tufted. Leaves flat or involute. Panicles lax or dense, branches 
often whorled. Glumes two, nearly equal, keeled, one-flowered, with or without the pedicel of an upper flower. 
Palee two, lower awnless, or awned at the back (often both in the same species), upper two-nerved, rarely absent. 
Awn never or very slightly twisted. Sguamule two. Stamens three. Caryopsis quite free. (Name from aypos, a 
‚field, the species abounding in open places.) 
$ 1. TrıcHopıum.— Flower sessile, with no rudiment or pedicel of a second. Upper palea 0, or much smaller than 
the lower ; lower awnless, or with a short dorsal awn, not hairy or silky at the base, or slightly so. 
l. Agrostis parviflora (Br. Prodr. 170); parvula, tenella, glaberrima, culmis gracilibus cespitosis, 
foliis planis angustis, panicula effusa capillari rariflora, glumis acuminatis florem excedentibus carina scabris, 
palea inferiore membranacea glaberrima truncata nervis inconspicuis arista dorsali inclusa v. 0, superiore 
minima v. 0.—Nob. in Fl. N. Zeal. i. 296. A. intricata, Nees, in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. ii. 419. 
A. gelida, F. Muell. MSS. (Gunn, 1011, 1448, 1449, 1471.) (Tas. CLVIII. B.) 
Has. Common in shady places, ascending to 4000 feet.—(Fl. Nov.-Jan.) (v. v.) 
DisrRiB. Victoria, New Zealand. 
A slender, tufted Grass, 6-8 inches high, erect or prostrate at the base, quite smooth.— Culms leafy upwards, 
or only at the base. Leaves very narrow, flat or involute. Zigula long, membranous. Panicle of few lax, capillary 
trichotomous branches, whorled in threes. Spikelets minute. Glumes about 4 longer than the flowers, nearly 
equal, scabrid along the keel. Lower palea quite glabrous, very membranous, broad, truncate, with faint nerves. 
Awn, when present, as in some specimens from New Zealand, dorsal, slender, included. Upper palea wanting in 
my specimens. — Panicles green or purplish ; alpine specimens growing in exposed places have rigid, subulate 
leaves, and very short culms. It is very nearly allied to the 4. alpina of the European alps, but the awn, when 
present, is never basal in this, and the panicle is fewer-flowered.—PLATE CLVIII. B. Fig. 1, spikelet ; 2, flower ; 
3, stamens, squamule, and ovary; 4, caryopsis :—all ified. 
2. Agrostis venusta (Trin. Agrost. ii. 94) ; caespitosa, tenella, foliis filiformibus setaceisve levibus 
v. scaberulis, culmis gracilibus, panieula (pro planta) maxima effusa, ramis primariis verticillatis elongatis 
capillaribus trichotomis, spiculis longe pedicellatis, glumis inegualibus acuminatis dorso carina ciliatis 
superiore + longiore, palea inferiore membranacea glaberrima v. scaberula truncata arista dorso infra me- 
dium inserta incurva glumis 4-2 longiore, superiore minima v. 0.—A. emula, Br., var. pumila, F. Muell. 
MSS.  Lachnagrostis Willdenowii, Nees, in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. à. 412. (Gunn, 593, 1008.) 
(Tas. CLIX. A.) 
VOL. II. 
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