Colenso. — On the Botany of New Zealand. 343 



Hah. Edges of Eiver Mangatawhainui, near Norsewood, 1883 : W.C. 

 Order XII. GBAMINEjE. 

 Genus 16. Danthonia, DeCandolle. 

 Danthonia pentaflora, sp. nov. 



Plant tufted, but not in dense tussocks. Culms 2-3 feet high, glabrous, 

 stout. Leaves fiat, 3-3£ 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 £ 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 f-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 glume 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 refuse, minutely 

 and closely pilose-ciliate and subpencilled at apex, largely ciiiated 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 Euahine mountain range (immature), 1846, etc.: 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. 



