Corxxso.—0On the Botany of New Zealand. . 848 
Hab. Edges of River Mangatawhainui, near Norsewood, 1888: W.C. 
DER XII. GRAMINE. 
Genus 16. Danthonia, DeCandolle. 
Danthonia pentaflora, sp. nov. 
Plant tufted, but not in dense tussocks. Culms 2-3 feet high, glabrous, 
stout. Leaves flat, 3-84 feet long, 2-3 lines wide, pale green, strongly 
nerved, glabrous and shining above, pilose below with long scattered white 
hairs, margins thickened bearing a double row of fine sharp cutting spiny 
recurved teeth, midrib scabrid above; sheaths 4 of an inch broad, subcoria- 
ceous, glabrous and keeled below, pilose above and ciliated with long 
straggling hairs, margins towards top slightly scabrid, densely and silky 
pilose with compressed hairs above mouth of sheath, and a transverse line 
of thickly set shortish white hairs almost disposed in little regular pencilled 
tufts forming a ligule. Panicle large, erect, broadly obovate, 12-14 inches 
long, open, diffuse, very thin; branches alternate, distant, 4-8 inches long, 
5 springing nearly together from a node, glabrous; branchlets very slender, 
filiform, few flowered, scaberulous. Spikelets distant, + inch long, 5- 
flowered ; peduncles +-1 inch long, hairy under spikelet ; florets sessile on 
rhachis; rhachis below florets densely hairy; hairs long. Empty glumes 
margins entire, subacute, lower one much the smaller, strongly 1-nerved, 
upper one slightly ciliated near base ; flowering gluine ciliate with long white 
hairs at margins near base, the 2 lobes much elongated but not awned, 
very finely and closely villously-ciliate, 1-nerved, awn much longer than 
glume, acicular, flat at base, 2-nerved, spreading, deflexed ; pale nearly as 
long as the glume, broadest near top, almost subobovate retuse, minutely 
and closely pilose-ciliate and subpencilled at apex, largely ciliated with long 
hairs on the back near base, margins pale-green. Anthers (immature) very 
long, nearly 2 lines, linear, light-brown, not exserted. 
Hab. Slopes of Ruahine mountain range (immature), 1846, ete.: W.C. 
Near same localities, 1882: Mr. A. Hamilton. 
Obs.—A species very near to D. cunninghamii in its general appearance 
but smaller, of tufted growth but not largely so, and more restricted as to 
locality. I have closely examined several specimens, gathered at various 
seasons and in separate localities, and have invariably found a spikelet to 
consist of 5 florets, the upper one being often smaller and abortive. Unfor- 
tunately all my specimens, though gathered at different times in early 
summer, were rather immature; and those collected by Mr. Hamilton in 
December are much the same. This species ripens its seeds late in the 
autumn. I have hitherto refrained from describing it in the hope of obtain- 
ing more complete specimens. 
