Order GRAMINE M. 
Genus Agrostis. 
Sub-Order Agrostide/E. 
AGROSTIS tEMULA. 
TOOTHED BENT GRASS. 
(Plate XXL) 
Agrostis forsteri, Roemer and Schultes. 
Agrostis lyallii, Hook. fil. Flora N.Z., I., 297. 
Agrostis leptostachys, Hook. fil. Flora Antarct., I., 94. 
Lachnagrostis forsteri, Trinius. 
Lachnagrostis iEMULA, Nees. 
Deyeuxia iEMULA, Kunth. 
Avena filiformis, Forster. 
Deyeuxia forsteri, Kunth. Hook. fil.; Flora N.Z., L, 298. 
Agrostis zemula, Brown. Hook. fil.; Handb. N.Z. Flora, I., 329. 
A very delicate glabrous grass, ascending to 2000 feet altitude. Flowers November—March. Root 
fibrous. Annual. Culms tufted, 6—24 inches high. Leaves very narrow, involute, scaberulous on the 
edges; ligule narrow, oblong, lacerate at top. Panicle large, very open, branches capillary, scaberulous, 
whorled, 3—6 inches long. Spikelets 1 —A-inch long, on very slender, scaberulous pedicels. Empty 
glumes nearlv equal, smooth; keel scabrid, 1-nerved. Flowering glume shorter, sessile, truncate, with 
scattered silky hairs, 5-nerved, awn proceeding from the middle of the back. Palea (when present) 
linear-oblong, bifid at top, 2-nerved, and frequently with the silky pedicel of a second glume at base. 
Scales entire, narrow-lanceolate. Anthers short, stout. Styles very short. Stigmas short, feathery. 
Distribution of Species: AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA, CAMPBELL ISLAND, NEW 
ZEALAND. 
A widely distributed grass in New Zealand, often forming a prominent part of the pasture on dry, 
stony, or sandy soils, especially in the North Island. It is valuable as a sheep grass in such places, 
probably proving perennial when prevented by grazing from ripening its seed, the permanence of such 
grasses often depending on their capability to stole or form offsets or branches at the roots before 
flowering and seeding. This grass possesses a large adaptation of growth to varied soils, although most 
abundant on arid clay land, probably from the absence there of larger grasses ; yet, on good soil, when 
sheltered by shrubs, it attains its greatest height, and is greedily eaten by horses and cattle. On several 
of the smaller islands off the East Coast of Napier and Auckland, this grass, with its congeners 
A. billardieri and A. pilosa, form, when in flower, a prominent feature of the open land, attaining under 
the shelter of Muhlenbeckia or Coprosma shrubs, a height of 2 feet. In such situations it is succulent 
and nutritious, and closely cropped by stock when present, many of the islands where it abounds being 
still unstocked with large cattle. Distribution in New Zealand : FOUND EVERYWHERE 
FROM SEA-LEVEL TO TWO THOUSAND FEET ALTITUDE. 
Reference to Plate XXL: Fig. 1. Plant. 2, 2. Spikelet. 3. Nervation of empty glumes. 
4. Nervation of flowering glume. 5. Scales. 6. Grain. 
