duced into short awns; intermediate awn from between the divisions, ½–¾ in. long, stout, erect or spreading, convex or shghtly flattened at the base, rarely twisted. Palea linear-oblong, 2-nerved, ciliate on the nerves.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 352. Bromus antarcticus, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 97, t. 54. Danthonia antarctica var. elata, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 302.
North Island: In various localities near the sea, rare and local. Auckland—Between Whangaroa and Mongonui, T.F.C; Bay of Islands, Kirk! T.F.C.; Maunganui Bluff, Petrie! Wellington—Hills near Wellington, Stephenson; near Cape Palliser, Buchanan! Auckland and Campbell Islands: Abundant on the hills, Hooker, Buchanan! Kirk!
I do not feel at all certain that the Auckland and Campbell Islands plant, originally described by Hooker as Bromus antarcticus, has been rightly merged by him with the North Island D. bromoides. It is much larger and stouter, with larger spikelets containing more numerous florets, and often forms tussocks 3–4 ft. high, attaining a size almost equal to that of D. Raoulii, whereas the typical bromoides is rarely more than 18 in. high. If further investigation should prove it to be distinct, there seems to be no reason why Hooker's name of D. antarctica (Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 302) should not be reapplied to it, for although he also included the plant now known as D. Cunninghamii it was as a separate variety, the Auckland Islands plant being evidently treated as the type of the species.
4. D. Raoulii, Steud. Syn. PI. Gram. 246.—Densely tufted, forming large brownish-green tussocks 2–5 ft. high. Culms stout or slender, smooch, often branched at the base. Leaves numerous, longer or shorter than the culms, variable in width at the base, gradually narrowed into long filiform points, strongly involute and rush-like when dry, coriaceous, smooth and polished on the back, ribbed on the inner face; margins smooth, glabrous or pilose just above the ligules; sheaths brownish, much broader than the blade, often lax and scarious towards the base, coriaceous above, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; ligules reduced to a transverse band of short dense hairs. Panicle variable in size, 4–18 in. long, lax; branches few or many, divided, slender, filiform, smooth and glabrous; pedicels long, often silky towards the tips. Spikelets ½–¾ in. long without the awns, 4–10-flowered. Two empty glumes unequal, from ½–⅔ the length of the spikelet, ovate-lanceolate, the lower 3-nerved, the upper 5-nerved, the lateral nerves usually short. Flowering glumes with long silky hairs at the base and on the margins for half their length or more, often also fringed on the lower part of the back, deeply bifid at the tip, the divisions usually produced into short scabrid awns, 7–9-nerved; central awn long, ⅓–½ in., straight or recurved, flattened and usually twisted at the base. Palea rather shorter than the glume, 2-nerved, silky on the nerves.—Buch. N.Z. Grasses, i. 30. D. rigida, Raoul, Choix, 12; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 303, t. 69a (not of Steud.).
Var. flavescens, Hack. MSS.—More robust; culms often ½ in. diam at the base. Leaves broader; sheaths sometimes ½–¾ in. across; lamina ¼–⅓ in. at the base. Spikelets rather larger.—D. flavescens, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 332; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 32.
