gt. A- inlbeeNa Zotov A teretla Kemr2g nots cA sth 
Agrostis. | GRAMINEAE. 157 
jy-, in. diam., flaccid, flat or invelute, smooth or the margins minutely 
scabrid ; sheaths long, grooved, quite smooth; ligules long, membranous, 
lacerate. Panicle varying in length from 2 to 6in. or more, compound, 
very lax and slender, drooping; primary branches long, capillary, scaberu- 
lous, erect at first but soon spreading, trichotomously divided, lowermost 
in clusters of 4-6, upper in distant pairs; secondary branches from above 
the middle, again divided ; pedicels thickened at the tips. Spikelets very 
minute, about in. long, shining, pale-green, sometimes tinged with 
purple. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, lanceolate, acute, membran- 
ous, slightly scabrid on the keel, margins hyaline; 3rd or flowering glume 
about + shorter, broad, truncate, hyaline, delicately 5-nerved, awnless. 
Palea wanting—AHook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 296 ; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 
(1864) 328; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 866. A. scabra Benth. Fl. 
Austral. vii (1878) 576 (not of Willd.). 
Nort Istanp: Inland Patea and shores of Cook Strait, Colenso/! SouTH ISLAND : 
Pelorus Valley, J. H. Macmahon / near Westport, W. Townson! near Dunedin, Petrie! 
Since the publication of the first edition of this work I have obtained no fresh 
information respecting this plant, which can be recognized without much difficulty 
by the weak habit, very slender lax spreading panicle, and minute spikelets, which 
are smaller than those of any other New Zealand species. It was originally referred 
to A. parviflora by Hooker in the Flora, but does not quite match the plate of that 
species given in the ‘“‘ Flora Tasmanica”’ (t. 158), nor any Australian specimens that 
I have seen. Bentham referred the Australian plant to A. scabra Willd., a North 
American species; but that is a larger and more erect plant, with a more copiously 
- divided panicle, and with narrower spikelets, much more scabrid on the keel. Professor 
Hackel, who has examined my specimens, says, ‘‘ Not easy to name. Surely not 
A. scahra Willd., but very near the North American A. perennans Tuck. It is most 
probably A. parviflora R. Br., but without seeing one of Brown’s types I cannot be 
quite sure of the identity.” It should be mentioned that most of the specimens 
referred to A. parviflora by New Zealand botanists are nothing but small states of 
A. Dyeri Petrie (the A. canina of the Handbook), as, for instance, the plant figured as 
A. parviflora by Buchanan in his New Zealand Grasses, t. 20c. All such specimens 
can be at once distinguished by the strict habit, contracted panicle, and larger spikelets. 
f 
8. A. la Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii (1890) 442.—Apparently 
annual. Culms laxly tufted, erect, very slender, quite smooth and glabrous, 
3-4-noded, 6-15 in. high. Leaves few, much shorter than the culms, erect, 
very narrow, filiform or setaceous, involute, finely striate; sheaths rather 
long, close, smooth; ligules oblong, obtuse, lacerate. Panicle very long 
and narrow, 14-4 in. by 45-4 in. broad, erect, pale-green ; rhachis minutely 
scaberulous; branches few, fascicled, very short, erect; pedicels short, capil- 
lary, scaberulous. Spikelets 7-75 in. long, pale. Two outer glumes subequal, 
lanceolate, acute, shining, l-nerved, slightly scabrid on the keel, smooth 
on the sides; 3rd or flowering glume about } shorter, ovate-lanceolate, 
thin and hyaline, truncate, minutely denticulate, glabrous, faintly 5-nerved, 
awn wanting. Grain oblong.—Cheesem. Man. N.Z. £l. (1906) 866. 
Sourn Isnanp: Canterbury—Broken River, Petrie! Porter River, T. Kirk! 
Otago—Macrae’s, Lake Wakatipu, Petrie / 1000-3000 ft. 
A very distinct species, easily recognized by the very slender habit, excessively 
narrow pale-green panicle, and small shining spikelets. 
18. DEYEUXIA Clarion. '° * 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves flat or involute; ligules mem- 
branous. Spikelets small, 1-flowered, arranged in effuse or contracted or 
spike-like panicles with capillary whoried branches; rhachilla disarticu- 
lating above the 2 outer glumes, produced beyond the flower into a silky 
“te 
