Sub-Order Avenace^e. 
Order GRAMINEZEh Genus Danthonia. 
» 
10 — DANTHONIA NUDA. 
NAKED OAT GRASS. 
(Plate XXXVI. A .) 
Danthonia nuda, Hook, fil, FI. N.Z, II., 337. 
Danthonia nuda, Hook, fil., Handb. Flora N.Z., I., 337- 
A small sub-alpine grass, found at 3000—4000 feet altitude. Flowers December January. Culms 
4_10-inches high, slender. Leaves glabrous, shorter than the culms, very narrow, involute, sheathing 
leaves short; ligule o, or a line of short hairs round the mouth of sheath, and long cilia on both sides. 
Panicle -J—a-inches long, of 6—10 erect spikelets, lower spikelets longest branched. Spikelets pale, 
purple, or greenish white, J-inch long, 3—5-fiowered. Empty glumes longer than the spikelets, 5-nerved. 
Flowering glumes glabrous, shortly 2-fid at the top, with a short central awn, p-nerved, and with one 
pencil of hairs on each margin ; pedicels with short tults of hairs. Palea bifid. Scales broad, 3 - lobed, 
and crowned with cilia. Ovary pear-shaped. Stigmas linear. Gtain narrow-oblong. Distribution 
of Species : NEW ZEALAND. 
4 
This valuable little pasture grass is abundant on sub-alpine hills, but very apt to be overlooked 
from its small size and general resemblance to other grasses, such as small forms of Poa, or introduced 
Fescues. From its succulent nature, and as it belongs to the family which includes some of the most 
nutritious grasses in New Zealand, it may be considered as having some claim as a valuable sheep grass, 
and also, from being indigenous to the soil, it may prove more hardy and better adapted to those bleak 
hilly districts where it is found, than many of the introduced grasses. Distribution in New 
Zealand: NORTH ISLAND: MOUNTAINS NEAR THE EAST COAST — Colenso. 
SOUTH ISLAND: MOUNTAINS OF NELSON (4000—5000 feet)—H. H. Travers; KAI- 
HIKU HILLS, OTAGO—J. Buchanan. 
Reference to Plate XXXVI. A: Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4. Nervation of 
empty glumes. 5 - Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation of Palea. /. Scale. S. Grain. 
