broader and flat, erect, smooth, striate; sheaths pale, membranous, grooved; Hgules reduced to a narrow membranous ciliolate rim. Panicle 1½–3 in. long, ovate to oblong, lax, few-flowered; rhachis capillary, scaberulous above; branches few, in distant pairs or the upper solitary, spreading or suberect, sparingly branched, capillary, scaberulous. Spikelets few at the tips of the brauchlets, oblong, ⅙–⅕ in. long, 3–5-flowered. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, about half the length of the spikelet or less, lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved, smooth or nearly so. Flowering glumes oblong-ovate, obtuse or subacute, 5-nerved, smooth or minutely scaberulous on the keel, a few crisped hairs on the callus and lower part of the back. Palea almost as long as the glume, ciliate on the keels. Anthers long, linear.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Not uncommon in dry places throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft.
What may be taken as the typical form of this species is abundant on sandy soil near the sea in the northern part of the North Island, and from its very slender filiform culms and leaves and lax few-flowered panicle presents a very distinct appearance. But, as Mr. Petrie remarks, there is a widely spread inland state that cannot be separated from it by any characters of importance, but which gradually varies into small and slender states of P. anceps, the var. gracilis of that plant forming a direct connection between the two species.
8. P. pusilla, Berggr. in Minneskr. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund. (1877) 31, t. 7, f. 35–40.—Rhizome long, creeping and rooting. Culms variable in size, often much dwarfed, 1–9 in. high, erect or ascending, slender, smooth and glabrous, striate. Leaves much, shorter than the culms, subdistichous, narrow, involute, setaceous; sheaths pale, compressed, grooved; ligules extremely short, reduced to a mere rim. Panicle variable in size, ½–2 in. long, broadly ovate, lax, few-flowered; branches few, slender, capillary, spreading, in depauperated states reduced to 2 or 3, each with a single spikelet, in large forms 4–8, with 1–4 spikelets at the tip. Spikelets pale-green, ovate, compressed, ⅛–⅙ in. long, 2–5-flowered. Two outer glumes subequal, about half as long as the spikelet, oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved, smooth or scabrid on the keel above. Flowering glumes oblong-ovate, obtuse, 5-nerved, smooth or rarely minutely scaberulous on the keel, callus and lower part of keel and margins with long crisped woolly hairs. Palea about ¾ the length of the glume, silky on the keels. Anthers long, linear.—P. anceps var. minima, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 46f.
South Island: Wet places in mountain districts, from the Wairau Valley, Nelson, to the south of Otago. Stewart Island: Kirk! Sea-level to 5000 ft.
I am greatly puzzled with this species. Forms very closely resembling Berggren's plate and description are not uncommon in subalpine localities in the South Island, but they appear to pass insensibly into a larger lowland state, with a more developed panicle and larger spikelets. This in its turn approaches so near to P. seticulmis that it is difficult to draw a strict line of demarcation between the two plants.
