206 GRAMINEAE. | Festuca. 
narrow-linear, complicate, acute at the tip, furnished at the base with a 
brown pulvinate callus, glabrous without, ribbed when dry, puberulous 
within, 5-nerved, hexagonal in transverse section ; sheaths rather lax, open, 
quite smooth; ligules 2-lobed, lobes acute, ciliolate. Panicle 3-6 in, long, 
ovate-oblong, lax, spreading, nodding ; rhachis and branches scabrid ; the 
latter binate, naked at the base, 1-3-spiculate at the top. Spikelets large, 
ovate-lanceolate, 5—7-flowered, 4-2 in. long, dense-fiowered, the upper shortly 
pedicelled, the remainder long-pedicelled. Two outer glumes unequal, 
lanceolate, acute, smooth. Flowering glumes linear-lanceolate, acute, 
narrowed into a rather long awn. Palea as long as or longer than the 
flowering glume, subulately bidentate; keels scaberulous——F. ovina var. 
Matthewsii Hack. in Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 918. F. Pe eee OH 
\ am © 1a Eka 
1"“tS “y oS 
SourH Istanp: Otago—Mount Bonpland, H. J. Matthews! 
This appears to me to be a perfectly distinct species, easily recognized by the large 
spikelets and curious pulvinate callus at the base of the leaf-blades. 
E*. 4. F. rubra Linn. Sp. Plant. (1753) 74—Culms 9-18in. high, laxly or 
densely tufted, erect or geniculate at the base, smooth, striate, 2-noded ; 
innovation-shoots both intravaginal and extravaginal, the extravaginal ones 
ascending or stoloniferous and creeping. Leaves 3-6 in. long, narrow, those 
of the innovation-shoots and sometimes of the culms setaceous, but 
frequently the culm-leaves are broader and flat or involute when dry, 3-7- 
nerved, smooth, obtuse or subacute at the tip; sheaths of the innovation- 
shoots tight, smooth, closed almost to the mouth ; ligules very short, glabrous, 
not auricled or obscurely so. Panicle very variable, 1-5 in. long, contracted, 
usually rather dense, erect or nodding, often secund ; rhachis angled, scabrid ; 
branches solitary or the lowest binate, divided almost from the base, scaberu- 
lous. Spikelets elliptic-lanceolate to oblong, +} in. long, laxly 4-8-flowered. 
Two outer glumes unequal; lower lanceolate, acuminate, l-nerved ; upper 
larger, ovate-lanceolate, 3-nerved. Flowering glumes oblong-lanceolate, 
involute and rounded on the back, faintly 5-nerved, shortly awned ; awn 
slender, scaberulous. Palea as long as the glume, linear-oblong, ciliolate 
on the keels —Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 918. F. duriuscula Hook. f. 
Fi. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 309; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 341 (for the most part, 
but not of Lnnn.). 
NorrH anp SoutH Istanps, Stewart Istanp: Abundant from the Hast Cape and 
the Upper Waikato southwards. Sea-level to 4500 ft. 
According to Professor Hackel, this constitutes the greater part of the Ff. duriuscula 
of the “‘ Flora Novae-Zelandiae’’ and the Handbook, the true F. duriuscula probably 
not existing in an indigenous state in New Zealand. It is very closely allied to I’. ovina, 
differing mainly in the innovation-shoots being frequently stoloniferous, and usually 
both extravaginal and intravaginal, and in their sheaths being closed almost to the 
mouths; also in the ligules not being auricled, and in the stem-leaves being usually 
broader and flatter than those on the innovation-shoots. It has considerable value as 
a sheep-grass, and is often sown on sheep-runs. From that fact it is doubtful whether 
some of the European forms that can now be readily collected even in remote districts 
may not have been introduced. Of some varieties, however, there is no reason to doubt 
their nativity. J. rubra has a wide range in Europe and northern Asia. 
5. F. multinodis Petrie and Hack. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xliv (1912) 
186.—Culms densely tufted, decumbent or geniculate below, ascending 
above, branched and sometimes excessively so, leafy, 6-15in. long, very 
slender, terete, many-noded; innovation-shoots extravaginal. Leaves 
numerous, 10-12 to a culm, shorter than the culms, more or less secund, 
