dently biauricled, glabrous. Panicle oblong, contracted but rather lax; lower branches binate, 3–6-spiculate. Spikelets elliptic, ⅓ in. long, laxly 5–7-flowered. Two outer glumes linear-lanceolate. Flowering glumes lanceolate, minutely scaberulous, short-awned at the tip.
Var. Matthewsii, Hack. l.c. 385.—Culms erect, quite smooth and glabrous, 12–20 in. high. Leaves almost equalling the culms, narrow, complicate, some what acute at the tip, quite glabrous, ribbed when dry, furnished at the base with a brown pulvinate callus; sheaths rather lax, open, quite smooth; ligules 2-lobed, lobes acute, ciliolate. Panicle 3–6 in. long, ovate-oblong, spreading, lax, noddmg; rhachis and branches scabrid; the latter binate, naked at the base, 1–3-spiculate at the tip. Spikelets large, ovate-lanceolate, ½–⅔ in. long, 5–7-flowered.
North and South Islands: Forms resembling common European states occur in several localities, but may be introduced. Var. novæ-zealandiæ: Ruahine Mountains, A. Hamilton! Probably not uncommon in the South Island. Nelson—Clarence Valley, T.F.C. Canterbury—Mount Torlesse, T.F.C. Otago—Maniototo Plain, Cambrians, Dunstan Mountains, Petrie! Var. Matthewsii: Otago—Mount Bonpland, H. J. Matthews! Petrie! Sea-level to 4500 ft. Sheep's Fescue.
A common grass in the temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere. The two varieties described above have a very different appearance from the majority of the European forms, particularly var. Matthewsii, which is remarkable for its large spikelets and curious swollen callus at the base of the leaf-blades.
3. P. rubra, Linn. Sp. Plant. 74.—Culms 9–18 in. 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, scaberulous. Spikelets elliptic-lanceolate to oblong, ¼–½ in. long, laxly 4–8-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal; lower lanceolate, acuminate, 1-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.—F. duriuscula, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 309; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 341 (for the most part, but not of Linn.).
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Abundant from the East Cape and the Upper Waikato southwards. Sea-level to 4500 ft.
According to Professor Hackel, this constitutes the greater part of the F. duriuscula of the "Flora Novæ-Zealandiæ" and the Handbook, the true F. duriuscula probably not existing in an indigenous state in New Zealand. It