and base of keel with a tuft of long crisped silky hairs. Palea rather shorter than the glume, minutely ciliate on the keels. Anthers linear, about 110 in. long.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 264; Raoul, Choix, 39; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 651. P. australis var. lævis, Hook. f. Handh. N.Z. Fl. 339; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 47. P. lævis var. filifolia, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 307.
Var. leioclada, Hack. MSS.—Panicle-branches smooth. Spikelets larger, ⅓ in. long or more.
Var. australis, Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 653.—Leaves rough and scabrous. Panicle very lax and spreading. Perhaps naturalised.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: The typical state abundant from the Upper Thames and Waikato southwards. Var. leioclada: Mount Egmont, Petrie! near Westport, Townson! Var. australis: Marua, near Whangarei, H. Hawkins! near Auckland, T.F.C. Sea-level to 4000 ft. "Tussock Grass."
Also in Australia and Tasmania. The most abundant grass through wide districts in the South Island, also plentiful in the elevated central portions of the North Island. Unfortunately, it is not relished by stock, and is seldom eaten, save in the absence of better food.
13. P. Colensoi, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 340.—Culms densely tufted, branched at the base, slender, erect, quite smooth, pale whitish-green, 2–14 in. high. Leaves shorter than the culms, very narrow, filiform, the margins so strongly involute that the leaf is almost terete, acute, erect or curved, rigid and wiry, quite smooth, polished; sheaths long, pale, rigid, grooved, the lower persistent long after the blades have fallen; ligules very large and long, sheathing, membranous, hyaline. Panicle ½–2 in. long, broadly ovate, lax, few-flowered; branches few, usually binate, slender, capillary, scabrid, bearing 1–3 spikelets at the tip. Spikelets pale-green, compressed, ⅕–¼ in. long, 3–6-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, reaching about ⅔-way up the flowering glumes above them, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved, the lateral nerves short and faint, smooth. Flowering glumes oblong-ovate, subacute, faintly 5-nerved, smooth or nearly so, keel and surfaces in the lower half very sparsely silky-pubescent or quite glabrous, with no long tuft of crisped hairs as in P. cæspitosa. Palea slightly shorter than the glume. Anthers long, linear, about 112 in. long.—Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 48b.
Var. intermedia, Cheesem.—Taller, with more of the tussocky habit of P. cæspitosa, 9–18 in. high. Ligules as in the typical state. Panicle larger, 2–3 in. long. Spikelets more numerous, larger, ⅓ in. long, but flowering glumes as in the type.—P. intermedia, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 48a.
North Island: Mountainous localities and dry elevated plains of the interior, from Moehau (Cape Colville) southwards, but rare and local to the north of Lake Taupo. South Island, Stewart Island: Plentiful throughout. Usually from 1000 to 5000 ft, but descends almost to sea-level in the south of Otago, and ascends to over 7000 ft. on Mount Egmont.
