lets 110–18 in. long, ovate, brownish-green or silvery-brown, 4–6-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, about ½ as long as the spikelet, oblong-ovate, subacute, 3-nerved, membranous. Flowering glumes broadly oblong, obtuse, faintly 5-nerved, silky throughout with short hairs, but no tuft of crisped hairs on the callus; margins white, membranous. Palea slightly shorter than the glume, ciliate on the keels. Anthers small, oblong, about 140 in. long.—Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 52.
North Island: Hawke's Bay—Ruataniwha Plains, H. Tryon! South Island: Not uncommon from the south of Nelson to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 5000 ft.
A pretty and distinct species, easily recognised by its small size and slender delicate habit, lax panicle, small silvery-brown spikelets, and faintly nerved silky flowering glumes. Hooker describes the flowering glumes as glabrous and nerveless, but I do not find them so.
18. P. incrassata, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxiv. (1902) 394.—Culms small, densely tufted, quite smooth and glabrous, leafy, 2–4 in. high. Leaves equalling or sometimes overtopping the culms, erect or slightly spreading, slender, smooth, flaccid, very narrow, almost setaceous, complicate when dry; sheaths rather lax, almost as long as the blade, grooved; ligules short, membranous, truncate. Panicle ½–1 in. long, lax, of 3–6 spikelets on rather long smooth pedicels. Spikelets ⅛–⅙ in. long, broadly oblong, rather turgid, purplish-brown, 3–4-flowered. Two outer glumes subequal, about ½ the length of the flowering glumes immediately above them, oblong, obtuse, 3-nerved, quite smooth. Flowering glumes broadly oblong, obtuse, prominently 5-nerved, quite smooth and glabrous. Palea almost as long as the glume, linear-oblong, minutely ciliate on the keels. Anthers oblong, minute, about 150 in. long.
Auckland Islands: F. R. Chapman!
I have seen very few specimens of this species, and the above description will probably require modification when a larger series is obtained. It appears to be nearest to P. exigua, but the panicle is much more lax, the spikelets larger and more turgid, and the outer glumes are much shorter.
19. P. exigua, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 338.—Culms densely tufted, small, slender, quite smooth and glabrous, leafy, 1–5 in. high. Leaves numerous, shorter than the culms or rarely equalling them, ½–3 in. long, very narrow, involute, setaceous, erect, soft and flaccid, smooth; sheaths lax, thin, grooved; ligules short, white, membranous. Panicle small, ½–¾ in. long, rarely more, narrow, contracted, usually dense-flowered; branches few, short, erect. Spikelets few or many, green tinged with purplish-red, ovate, small, 110–18 in. long, 2–3-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, membranous, minutely scabrid on the upper part of the keel; lower oblong-lanceolate, acute, 1-nerved; upper larger and broader, ¾ the
