f 
Order GRAMINEfiE. 
Genus Danthonia. 
Sub-Order Avenace/e. 
4 .— DANTHONIA RAOTJLIT. 
NARROW-LEAVED OAT TUSSAC GRASS. 
(Plate XXX) 
Danthonia rigida, Raoul. Hook, fil., FI. N.Z., I., 303. 
Danthonia Raoulii, Steud. Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. Flora, 1 , 332. 
A very large tussac grass, from sea-level to 4000 feet altitude. Flowers December—January. Culms 
3—8-feet high, J-inch diameter Leaves 3 —6-feet long, coriaceous, involute and filiform ; ligule o, or 
a line of short hairs round the mouth of sheath. Panicle large drooping, 10—18-inches long; 
branches 6—12-inches long, distant, often sub-dividing near the bottom. Spikelels alternate on the 
branches, ^ffinch long, 4—8-flowered. Empty glumes unequal, 3 —5-nerved. Flowering glume 
deeply 2-fid, and shortly awned on the lobes, 9-nerved, covered with numerous short hairs on the lower 
half, margins and back fringed with long hairs, awn flattened and twisted, often straight; pedicel tufted 
with long hairs. Palea bifid at top, with straggling long hairs on the margins. Scales oblong-acute, 
crowned with numerous cilia. Distribution of Species : NEW ZEALAND. 
This species forms the largest tussacs of the family, and was very abundant in Otago and 
Southland before the occupation of the country by settlers. At that time the pasture was very 
superior, chiefly from the shelter afforded by the numerous large tussacs to the growth of the smaller 
ft 
grasses, which were then abundant. Injudicious burning, however, had destroyed all these finer grasses 
before the enclosure of the land by fencing. On improving land intended exclusively for pastoral 
purposes, or for the raising of large stock in districts exposed to cold winds, it may be questioned 
whether the entire destruction of the native grasses, especially the larger tussac kinds, is judicious, as 
their conservation, or culture, where they do not exist, would certainly prove an element of profit, not 
only from their own intrinsic value as food, but also from their sheltering all kinds of stock, as well as 
protecting from the nipping winds the smaller grasses which should form the bulk of every pasture. 
The indigenous grasses of New Zealand are, undoubtedly, more permanent and fattening than the 
introduced grasses of cultivation, and it might prove expedient in many districts to adopt a mixed 
system, by which the larger tussac grasses, both native and introduced, might be planted out as shelter 
along with the main pasture composed of the most permanent species of which seed can be procured, 
