10. D. pilosa, R. Br. Prodr. 177.—Culms tufted, slender, glabrous or sparingly pilose, leafy at the base, 1–2 ft. high, rarely more. Leaves usually much shorter than the culms, narrow, often setaceous, involute or rarely flat, glabrous or pilose with spreading hairs; sheaths narrow, grooved, pilose or glabrous; ligules reduced to a transverse band of long soft hairs. Panicle 1–4 in. long, usually narrow and contracted, sometimes racemaform; branches short, erect. Spikelets about ½ in. long, 4–8-flowered. Two outer glumes exceeding the flowering glumes, subequal, lanceolate, acute, membranous, 7-nerved. Flowering glumes 7–9-nerved, deeply 2-lobed at the tip, the lobes produced into fine awns as long or longer than the glume, central awn from between the lobes, exserted beyond the spikelet, flattened and spirally twisted and often dark-coloured at the base, a tuft of silky hairs at the base of the callus or pedicel of the glume, a tuft on the margin on each side above the callus, sometimes connected by hairs on the back, and another marginal tuft on each side opposite to the base of the lobes, the sides and back between usually glabrous. Palea broad, obtuse or shortly bifid at the tip.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 303; Fl. Tasm. ii. 120; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 594; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 33. D. semiannularis var. pilosa, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 333. D. nervosa, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 612 (not of Hook. f.).
Var. racemosa, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 33(2)b.—Culms very slender, drooping. Panicle reduced to a slender raceme of 4–10 almost sessile spikelets.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 4000 ft.
D. pilosa is technically distinguished from D. semiannularis by the absence of the transverse ring of hairs on the flowering glume just below the lobes. In the typical state this ring is reduced to a small tuft of hairs on each margin of the glume, the sides and back between the tufts being quite glabrous. But occasionally there are a few hairs on the back of the glume as well, and sometimes these become so numerous as almost to form a transverse ring, thus breaking down the distinction between the two species. D. pilosa is also found in Australia, ranging from Queensland to Tasmania and West Australia.
11. D. semiannularis, R. Br. Prodr. 177.—Very variable in size, usually 1–2 ft. high, but often dwarfed to a few inches, and sometimes attaining 3 ft. Culms tufted, slender, smooth, glabroiis or sparingly pilose. Leaves shorter than the culms, narrow, flat or involute, often almost setaceous; sheaths grooved, glabrous or pilose with long spreading hairs; ligules reduced to a narrow transverse band of soft silky hairs, those on the outside the longest. Panicle 1–4 in. long, usually compact and more or less contracted; branches few, short, erect. Spikelets ¼–½ in. long without the awns, 3–8-flowered. Two outer glumes exceeding the flowering glumes, subequal, lanceolate, acute, membranous, 5–7-nerved. Flowering glumes 7–9-nerved, deeply 2-lobed at the tip, the
