Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/124

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FLORA ANTARCTICA.
[Auckland and

cellatis basi nudis, palea inferiore glaberrima ovato-lanceolata obtusa concava trinervi nervis sub lente scabridis, fobis planis liiieari-setaceis cubno brevioribus, culmis basi rarnosis inclinatis v. ascendeutibus.

Hab. Campbell's Island; open grassy places near the sea, not uncommon.

RMzomata teniiia, breviuscula, ramosa, radices fibrosas plurimas emittentia ; fibris tortis, filiforniibus, fibrillosis, fuscis. Culmi basi pluries divisi et inclinati, deinde ascendentes, graciles, 6 unc. ad pedalem, crassitie pennae passerina?, nodosi, ad nodos plerumque geniculati ; internodiis imcialibus, glaberrimis, striatis, kevibus, nitidis ; nodis subincrassatis, fuscis. Folia panca, 1-j— 3 unc. longa, cubno breviora, suberecta v. patentia, anguste lineari-subidata, sub 1-1-j lin. lata, gradatim attenuata, planiuscula, striata, glaberrima, utrinque opaca, kete viridia. Vagina lamina breviores, profimde striata?, marginibus scariosis, ore paido contracto ; ligula late ovata, apice rotundata, scariosa. Panicida erecta, laxa, gracilis, 3-5 unc. longa, parce ramosa, pauciflora, raebi tereti, gracili, stricta, striata, lsevi, nitida ; ramis remotis, plerumque verticillatis v. oppositis, gracillimis, divisis, suberectis patentibusve, inferioribus elongatis, 1-1- unciaUbus, versus apices floriferis. Spicula sub lin. longa?, obovato-oblonga?, compressa?, 4-flora?, pedicellata? ; pedicello spicula? subaequilongo, striate, scaberulo. Glumarum valves parvse, glaberrima?, valde inaequales, inferior minuta, ovata, obtusa, concava, uninervis ; superior duplo triplove major, flosculi dimidii longitudine, ovato-oblouga, apice truncata, emarginata v. bidentata, concava, trinervis, nervo medio scabendo. Flosculi basi dissiti, glaberrimi, infimus sessilis, reliqui pedicellati, terminalis cum arista brevi alterius incompleti sa?pe auctus ; pediceUis glaberrimis. Palea inferior oblongo-lanceolata, obtusa, concava, trinervis, nervis prominen- tibus sub lente scaberulis. Palea superior paido brevior, lineavi-oblonga, apice bifida, bicarinata, carinis minute cuiatis. Squamula late obovato-quadrata?, obbque bifida?, segmentis acutis, valde iusequalibus. Stamina 3 ; filamentis elongatis ; antheris exsertis, brevibus, late oblongis. Ovarium obovato-oblongiun ; stylis basi discretis, lateraliter insertis ; stigmatibus longe phimosis, exsertis.

In several respects this species approaches the following genus Catahrosa, especially in the small glumes, the upper one of which is erose or toothed at the apex, and in the remote bases of the styles, but the palea? are not truncated, though obtuse, and the florets are always four in number.

In the very short glumes and indeed in the entire structure of the spikelets, florets and their squamula? and ovarium, it resembles the Sphenopus divaricatus, Reich., with which it further agrees in the branching of the panicle, its few flowers being placed towards the apices of the branchlets ; but it has not the general habit of that curious little grass, nor the peculiarly thickened pedicels to the spikelets. M. Kunth (Agrost., p. 392), has reduced the genus Sphenopus (Trinius) to Festuca ; but Theodore Nees, in his beautiful genera of German plants, has retained that generic name and published an excellent analysis of it ; I quite agree with him in considering it as more closely allied to Poa, in which genus its original describer, Gouan, placed it, than to Festuca.

7. CATABEOSA, Palis.

1. Catabrosa antarctica, Hook, fil.; panicula laxa pauciflora, glumarum valvis infequabbus inferiore lineari-oblonga subacuta superiore oblongo-lanceolata apice breviter bifida v. bidentata, palea inferiore apice truncata basi pilosa 3-5 nervi nervis obscuris inter medio in aristam brevissimam setiformem products, antheris brevibus late oblongis, fobis anguste bnearibus involutis paniculam superantibus, culmis gracibbus erectis basi divisis. (Tab. LVL)

Hab. Campbell's Island; on moist rocky ledges, rare, only found at an elevation of 1000 feet.

Bremen gracile, 6-8 unciale, magnitudine sat varians. RMzomata laxe caespitosa, elongata, 1-2 unc. longa, curvata, crassa, diametro pemia? corvina? vel minora, lignosa, fusca, nodosa, ad nodos fibrosa, versus apices divisa v. subramosa; fibris elongatis, tortis, fuscis, fibrillosis. Culmi fasciculati, erecti, graciles, foliosi, 2-5 unc. longi, remote nodosi ; internodiis teretibus, striatis, sub ± uncialibus, glaberrimis ; nodis coustrictis, brunneis. Folia erecta,