Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/1196

1156 Page 907 12 bis. P. litorosa, Cheesem. — A tall densely tufted species, often forming tussocks 2-3 ft. high. Culms numerous, branched at the base, leafy, quite glabrous, 2-3-noded. Leaves much longer than the culms, narrow linear- filiform, gradually narrowed upwards, strongly involute for their whole length, coriaceous, glabrous, striate ; sheaths very long, smooth, shining ; ligules narrow, horizontal, inconspicuous. Panicle 3-5 in. long, suberect or slightly inclined, sparingly branched, few-flowered ; rhachis slender, scabrid ; branches scaberulous, 8-5-spiculate. Spikelets much compressed, ovate-oblong, about ^in. long, 4;-5-flowered. Two outer glumes subequal, lanceo- late, acute, 3-nerved, scabrid on the back and nerves. Flowering glumes oblong-lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, prominently 5-nerved ; callus and base with a tuft of long crisped hairs, the whole surface densely minutely scaberulous. Palea a quarter shorter than the glume, bidentate, ciliate-scabrid on the keels. — Festuca scoparia, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 98.

Auckland and Campbell Islands : Abundant in rocky places near the sea, Hooker, Kirk !

Easily distinguished from P. Astoni by the larger size and stouter habit, larger spikelets with fewer flovvers, and obtuse or subacute flowering glumes.

905 p. pusilla. — Bluff Hill and Dog Island, Foveaux Strait, Dr. Cockayne.

906 P. dipsacea. — Mr. Townson has collected this in several localities in the south-west of the Nelson Provincial District.

907 12 lev. P, Hamiltoni, 2 Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst, xxvii. (1895) 353.—" Culms leafy to the base of the panicle, erect, 6-9 in. high. Leaves flat, spreading, exceeding the panicle ; ligule ovate, laciniate, the laciniae produced into long hair-like points. Panicle 3-4 in. long, strict, narrow, lower branches 1-2 in. long. Spikelets pedicellate, 2-3-flowered ; outer glumes unequal, the outermost less than half the length of the inner. Flowers never webbed at the base. Flowering glume narrow-lanceolate, o-nerved ; lodieules ovate, acute. Grain large, cylindrical."

Macquarie Island: A. Hamilton.

"A distinct species allied to P. foliosa, Hook, f., and P. anceps, Forst., but distinguished from both by the leaves exceeding the culms, the laciniate ligule, the smaller spikelets, and unequal flowering-glumes ; also from P. foliosa by the longer pedicels, very short styles, and cylindrical grain."

The above species was accidentally omitted in the body of this work. I have seen no specimens, and Kirk's description is not sufficiently precise to allow its systematic position to be made out with certainty.