strict, erect, rigid and coriaceous, involute, almost equitant at the base, finely striate, glaucous; margins thickened, smooth; sheaths compressed, grooved; ligules reduced to a narrow band of short white hairs. Panicle small, lax, ovate, 1–1½ in. long, of 3–8-spikelets; branches few, slender, silky. Spikelets about ⅓ in. long without the awns, 3–5-flowered. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, almost as long as the spikelet, lanceolate, membranous, 3–5-nerved. Flowering glumes silky at the base, and equally clothed with silky hairs for half their length, 7–9-nerved, deeply 2-fid at the apex, the lobes lanceolate, acute but not awned; central awn flattened and usually spirally twisted at the base. Palea almost as long as the flowering glume, ciliate on the nerves and silky on the margins near the base.
Stewart Island: Smith's Lookout, altitude 1000 ft., Kirk!
A curious little plant, at once recognised by the flattened rigid and pungent-pointed leaves.
7. D. australis, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 81.—Forming extensive patches on alpine or subalpine slopes. Culms much branched at the base, prostrate or decumbent and covered with the remains of the old leaves, ascending and then erect above, quite glabrous, 6–18 in. high. Leaves numerous towards the base of the culms and much shorter than them, distichous, imbricate, strict, rigid, erect or curved to one side, 2–6 in. long, about 140 in. broad, closely involute, smooth and polished, acute at the tip; sheaths short, closely overlapping, tight, much broader than the blade; ligules reduced to a line of silky hairs. Panicle small, lax, 1–2 in. long, of 3–8 spikelets on slender capillary silky-pubescent branches. Spikelets ½–⅔ in. long, 4–7-flowered. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, lanceolate, acuminate, membranous, 5–7-nerved, from ⅘ to ⅚ the length of the spikelet. Flowering glumes silky at the base and with the back and margins fringed with silky hairs for more than half their length, deeply 2-fid at the tip, the divisions produced into short scabrid awns, 7–9-nerved; central awn ⅓–½ in. long, slender, flat and spirally twisted at the base. Palea shorter than the glume, linear-oblong.—D. Raoulii var. australis, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iv. (1872) 224.
South Island: Not uncommon on the mountains of Nelson, Canterbury, and Westland, altitude 3500–6000 ft. "Carpet-grass"; "Hassock-grass."
A well-marked species, often covering acres on the higher mountains of Nelson and North Canterbury, usually affecting steep slopes. After the melting of the snow in early summer, which usually leaves the culms and leaves pointing downhill, these slopes are most slippery and treacherous to cross. There is a specimen in Mr. Petrie's herbarium marked "Campbell Island, J. Buchanan."
8. D. oreophila, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 406.—Culms densely tufted, much branched at the base, slender, erect, leafy, 6–12 in. high. Leaves subdistichous, 2–5 in. long by 112–110 in.
