vii. 559. H. borealis, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 300; Fl. Tasm. ii. 108 (not of Roem. and Schult.). H. alpina, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 322 (not of Roem. and Schult.); Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 7.
Var. recurvata, Hack. MS.—Awn of 4th glume inserted on the middle of the back of the glume, slightly geniculate above. Spikelets rather larger.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Not uncommon in mountain districts from the East Cape and the Ruahine Mountains southwards. Sea-level to 4500 ft.
Also in Tasmania. A puzzling plant, large states of which cannot be clearly separated from H. redolens, although usually differing in the smaller size, slender habit, shorter and more open panicles, and smaller spikelets, with the empty glumes rather shorter than the 3rd and 4th. Sir J. D. Hooker referred it to H. borealis in the Flora, and to H. alpina in the Handbook. But Professor Hackel remarks that it differs from both of these species in the short blunt outer glumes, and from H. alpina, in addition, in the much longer branches of the panicle, and in the awn of the 4th glume being usually inserted just beneath the apex and not geniculate. Var. recurvata approaches H. alpina in the awn of the 4th glume, but the panicle, &c., is different.
3. H. Brunonis, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 93, t. 52.—Culms laxly tufted, inclined at the base, erect above, glabrous, leafy, 1–1½ ft. high. Leaves shorter than the culms, ⅕–⅓ in. broad, rather strict, suberect, linear-subulate, involute, subcoriaceous, glabrous, deeply striate on the inner face, pale shining green; sheaths compressed, striate; Hgules ovate, scarious. Panicle inclined or nodding, shining, rather dense, ovate-lanceolate, 3–5 in. long by 1–1½ in. broad; rhachis slender, glabrous; branches suberect, the lower about 1 in. long. Spikelets ⅓ in. long, pedicelled; pedicels sparsely pilose. Glumes all membranous; outer 2 much longer than the 3rd and 4th, sometimes nearly twice as long, lanceolate, long-acuminate, glabrous, 3-nerved; 3rd and 4th each enclosing a male flower, ovate-oblong, obtuse, 5-nerved, deeply bifid at the tip, pubescent or pilose, margins silky-ciliate, awn rather long, rising from the back a little distance below the base of the lobes; 5th similar to the 4th but smaller and much less pubescent, usually glabrous at the base. Palea linear-oblong, 1–2-nerved.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 322.
Auckland and Campbell Islands: Abundant on the hills. Sir J. D. Hooker, Kirk! Buchanan! Sea-level to 1400 ft.
The long empty glumes readily separate this from any form of H. redolens.
12. STIPA, Linn.
Tufted perennial grasses. Leaves usually convolute, rarely flat. Spikelets narrow, terete, 1-flowered, in an open or contracted panicle; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes. Glumes 3; the 2 outer empty, usually persistent, keeled, acute, rarely awned; 3rd or flowering glume rigid, convolute, terete, 527-nerved, usually with a bearded callus at the base, tapering upwards into an
