Festuca. | GRAMINEAE. 205 
1. F. littoralis Zabill. Pl. Nov. Holl. i (1806) 22, t. 27.—Forming 
dense hard tussocks of a pale yellow-green colour. Culms branched at 
the base, erect, rigid, smooth and polished, 13-3 ft. high. Leaves longer 
or shorter than the culms, narrow, so strongly involute that the blade is 
terete, erect, rigid and pungent-pointed, quite smooth and polished ; sheaths 
pale, grooved; ligules short. Panicle 2-9in. long, narrow, dense and 
spike-like ; rhachis stout, angled, grooved; branches short, erect, usually 
few-flowered ; pedicels short, pilose. Spikelets large, broad, flattened or 
somewhat turgid, }-2in. long, 4-7-flowered, pale yellowish-green. ‘Two 
outer glumes subequal, more than } as long as the spikelet, keeled, 
lanceolate, acuminate, 3-5-nerved, glabrous. Flowering glumes oblong- 
lanceolate, rounded on the back at the base, keeled above, 5—7-nerved, 
acute or very minutely notched at the tip, the central nerve stout and 
slightly protruding im the notch, equally minutely hairy all over, base of 
glume, callus, and rhachilla more or less densely clothed with short hairs. 
Palea lanceolate, ciliolate along the keels. Grain narrow-oblong, almost 
terete; hilum linear, very short.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 123 ; 
Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii (1860) 1388; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 341; Buch. 
N.Z. Grasses (1880) t. 54; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 917. Schedonorus 
littoralis Beauv. Agrost. (1812) 99; A. Cunn. Precur. (1836) n. 259; Raoul 
Choix (1846) 39; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 310.40 Pea a 3« 
NortH AND SoutH Isnanps, Stewart ISLAND, CHatHamM Is~tANDS: Abundant in 
sandy and rocky places near the shore. Also common on the coasts of temperate 
Australia, 
Var. triticoides Benth. Fl. Austral. vii (1878) 656; Buch. N.Z. Grasses (1880) 
t. 54 (left-hand figure). F. triticoides Steud. Syn. Gram. (1855) 315 is not uncommon 
on many parts of the New Zealand coasts, and usually can be easily recognized 
by its greater size, larger spikelets, and 7-nerved flowering glumes. But Professor 
Hackel has pointed out that the differences are inconstant and not of sufficient 
weight to maintain it as a variety. 
—— 
Zi. Stee, - free. VA" ) 
2. F. novae-zealandiae Cockayne in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xlvii (1916) 
178.—Forming dense tussocks 1-2 ft. high. Culms slender, erect, scabrid, 
3-noded. Leaves shorter than the culms or almost equalling them, strict, 
rigid, erect, very narrow, cylindric, setaceous, sharply acute or almost 
pungent, rough with minute scabrid points; sheaths fissured to the base, 
quite smooth and glabrous ; ligules evidently biauricled, glabrous. Panicle 
linear-oblong, contracted but somewhat lax, 2-5in. long; lower branches 
binate, 3-6-spiculate. Spikelets elliptic, 4in. long, laxly 5-7-flowered. 
Two outer glumes linear-lanceolate, acuminate, margins and keel scaberu- 
lous. Flowering glumes narrow-lanceolate, mucronate or shortly awned 
at the tip.—F. ovina var. novae-zealandiae Hack. in Cheesem. Man. N.Z. 
Fl. (1906) 917; JU. N.Z. Fl. ii (1914) t. 233. F. duriuscula Hook. f. FI. 
Nov. Zel. 1 (4853) 309, and Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864), 341 (un part, but_not of 
Nortu Isnanp: Kaimanawa Mountains, B. C. Aston/ Ruahine Mountains, A. 
Hamilton! Souru Istanp: Not uncommon in mountain districts throughout. Banks 
Peninsula, Rk. M. Laing / 1000-4000 ft. 
I agree with Dr. Cockayne in considering that this plant should be treated as worthy 
of the rank of a species, a course which Professor Hackel was inclined to adopt when 
he first described it. It occupies a prominent place in large areas of the eastern slopes 
of the Southern Alps, and is of considerable economic importance. 
f et r ) 
3. F. Matthewsii ,Cheesem. n. sp.—Culms erect, quite smooth and 
slabrous, 12-24 in. high, 2-noded ; upper node about the middle of the culm. 
Innovation-shoots few-leaved, elongate. Leaves almost equalling the culms, 
Cwter 
