Order GRAMINEAE. 
Genus Danthonia, 
Sub-Order Avenaceal 
5 — DANTHOOTA AUSTRALIS, \.s. 
WIRY-LEAVED OAT GRASS. 
(Plate XXXI.) 
I 
Danthonia Raoulii, Steud. Var. a. australis, Buchanan. Trans. N.Z. Inst., IV., 224. 
A small rigid grass, growing in dense tussac masses, at 6000 feet altitude. Flowers January. Culms 
8—16-inches high. Leaves 1—4-inches long, glabrous, erect, very narrow and involute, rigid, 
setaceous, distichous, secund on the outer culms ; ligule o, or a line of short hairs round the mouth of 
the sheath, and long cilia on each side. Panicle 1 — i^-inches long, open, 2-branched. Spikelets 3—3, 
with generally 2 spikelets on each branch, and one on the terminal rachis, ^-finch long, 5—7-flowered. 
Empty glumes nearly equal, 3- and 7-nerved. Flowering glume deeply 2-fid and shortly awned on the 
lobes, 9-nerved, glabrous, with silky margins and back fringed with long hairs, awn flattened and twisted, 
pedicel tufted with long hairs. Palea bifid at top, with straggling hairs on the margins. Scales ovate- 
acute, crowned with short cilia. Distribution of Species : NEW ZEALAND. 
This grass is found at considerable altitudes in the South Island, and is covered by the snows of winter 
during several months in the year. It forms a very coarse herbage for sheep, although the early growth 
in spring may be more grateful and nutritious. The close compacted mass of stems, sheathing leaves, 
and roots becomes blanched and succulent, and is much relished by rats, who swarm everywhere on 
the pastures of the South Island, and are purely vegetable feeders in such localities. Distribution 
in New Zealand: SOUTH ISLAND: KAIKOURA MOUNTAINS (4000—6000 feet)— 
J. Buchanan; LAKE GUYON DISTRICT (3000—6000 feet)—H. H. Travers. 
Reference to Plate XXXI. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4, 4. Nervation of empty 
glumes. 3. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation of Palea. 7. Scale. 8. Ovary, styles, and 
stigmas. 
