BOTANY OF THE SNARES. 1 65 



Hab. Carnley Harbour, Auckland Islands, 1,000 ft., T. Kirk. 



The flowering glumes in some instances are deeply and evenly 

 toothed, in others the teeth are shallow, or the margin is merely erose. 

 The lower flower is sessile within the outer glumes ; the upper is 

 carried on a short stipe, which is invariably silky. The grain is very 

 large for the size of the flower. 



Descha/nvpsia Hooheri mihi. — Catabrosa antarctica, Hook. f. Fl. 

 Antarc. i. 102, t. 56 j FL N. Z. i. 308 • Handbook K Z. Fl. 330 • J. 

 Buchanan, Indig. Grasses of N". Z., t. 41. Trioclia, Benth. and Hook. 

 f. Gen. PL iii. 1176. 



Mr. N. E. Brown having referred this plant to Deschampsia, Pal., 

 in the Kew Herbarium, a new specific name is rendered necessary, the 

 one which it bears as a Catabrosa having been appropriated to a Chilian 

 species, Aira antarctica Hook, f., which has been removed to Des- 

 champsia by M. Desvaux. No name can be more appropriate than 

 that of its original discoverer. 



Culms very slender, erect or decumbent, 3"— 18* high. Leaves 

 involute, narrow or almost filiform, longer or shorter than the culms ; 

 sheaths slightly inflated, grooved; ligule very long and narrow. Panicle 

 very slender 2 // -S // long, contracted or effuse ; branches capillary, often 

 trichotomous ; spikelets few, pedicillate, glistening, 2-flowered ; outer 

 gls. unequal, obscurely 3-nerved ; flowering gl. ovate, truncate, minutely 

 toothed or erose, obscurely 5-nerved, with a short awn inserted im- 

 mediately beneath the apex or 0, or with the median nerve excurrent ; 

 palea equalling the flowering gl. ; rachilla glabrous or silky, often 

 reduced to a mere point. Lodicules 3. Anthers very short and broad. 

 Grain free. 



a. The larger outer glume equalling the lowest flower ; pedicel of 

 upper fl. glabrous or with a few short hairs ; awn present or ; rachilla 

 glabrous when present. 



b. The lar-ger outer glume half the length of the lowest flower, 

 pedicel of upper flower silky, awn usually present, rachilla silky. 



Hab. Central mountain range of the north and south islands. 

 Antipodes island. Auckland Islands. Campbell Island. Sea level to 

 5,000 ft. Also in Chili. 



This plant affords an instance of the difficulty attending the 

 limitation of the genera of Grasses, on account of the distinctive 

 characters being chiefly drawn from organs usually considered to be 

 of but secondary importance. In' some states all the spikelets are 

 perfectly awnless ; in others the awn is represented by the short, 

 excurrent, median nerve of the flowering glume alone, and when 

 present is never inserted below the middle of the glume ; all characters 

 in which it diverges from the typical form of Deschampsia. In some 

 instances the truncate flowering glume is minutely but distinctly 

 3-toothed, as in Triodia Br., to which it is referred by the learned 

 authors of the Genera Plantarum ; in others it is rather waved at the 

 margin than erose, with or without a minute projection of the median 

 nerve, and in this state may well be referred to Catabrosa Beauv., in 

 which it was originally placed by its discoverer, who evidently observed 

 the close general resemblance of the flowers to those of Deschampsia. 



