North Island: Omatangi, near Lake Taupo, Berggren! Lake Rotoaira, Kirk! Mount Egmont, T.F.C.; Tararua Ranges, T. P. Arnold! South Island: Nelson—Mount Owen, T.F.C. Canterbury—Broken River Basin, Enys! Kirk! T.F.C.; Mackenzie Plains, T.F.C. Otago—Not uncommon in the eastern and southern portions of the province, Petrie! Kirk! Altudinal range usually from 1500 to 4500 ft., but descending to sea-level in Southland.
3. A. Muelleri, Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 576.—Culms compactly tufted, slender, strict, erect, smooth, 1–2-noded, the nodes near the base of the culm, 2–9 in. high. Leaves crowded near the base of the culms and usually much shorter than them, very narrow, often filiform, strict, erefct, involute, smooth and glabrous; sheaths long, grooved, glabrous; ligules scarious, narrow-oblong. Panicle very narrow, almost spike-like, ½–2 in. long, erect, purplish or palegreen; rhachis smooth or obscurely scabrid; branches in fascicles of 2–5, unequal, short, erect, capillary, scabrid. Spikelets about 110 in. long. Two outer glumes slightly unequal, oblong-lanceolate, acute, green or purplish, usually scabrid or ciliate on the keel, but sometimes glabrous, margins thin and hyaline; 3rd or flowering glume about ⅓ shorter, thin and membranous, truncate, minutely denticulate, smooth, faintly 5-nerved, awn usually absent but sometimes present from the middle of the back. Palea wanting. Grain oblong.—A. gelida, F. Muell. in Trans. Vict. Inst. (1855) 43 (not of Trin.). A. canina var. Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 328; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 20, f. a. (?) A. subulata, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 95, t. 53.
Var. paludosa, Hack. MS.—Culms 3-noded, the uppermost node higher up the culm than in the type. Panicle broader and laxer. Spikelets straw-coloured.
North Island: Ruahine Mountains, Colenso, A. Hamilton! South Island: Common in mountain districts throughout. Var. paludosa: Swamps by the Broken River, Kirk! Tasman Valley, T.F.C. 2500–5500 ft. Also in Australia.
Very closely allied to A. Dyeri, from which it only differs in its smaller size and narrow panicle. Var. paludosa has a very distinct appearance, and I had placed it as a separate species, but Professor Hackel considers that it is only entitled to the rank of a variety.
4. A. Dyeri, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1890) 441.—Perennial; innovation-shoots intravaginal, not clothed at the base with leafless scales. Culms tufted, 4–18 in. high, slender, erect or geniculate at the base, glabrous, 2–3-noded, the upper node considerably below the culm. Leaves shorter than the culms, 112–18 in. broad, flat or convolute when dry, striate, scaberulous on the margins and both surfaces; sheaths terete, grooved, glabrous, the upper long; ligules oblong, obtuse, membranous, lacerate. Panicle elongated, usually from 2 to 5 in. long, but shorter in depauperated forms, erect, usually more or less contracted, rarely open, green or brownish-green; rhachis slender, scaberulous above; branches in rather distant fascicles placed alternately on opposite sides of the
