linear, bidentate. Rhachilla produced into a hairy bristle at the back of the palea, about ⅓ its length.—D. scabra, Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 26a (not of Benth.).
South Island: Otago—Swampy Hill (near Dunedin), Mount Pisa, Petrie! 1500–3500 ft.
This was referred by Mr. Buchanan to D. scabra, Benth. (Agrostis scabra, R. Br.; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 116, t. 160), which differs from the New Zealand plant, as indicated by Professor Hackel, in the small spikelets; scabrid branches of the panicle; in the flowering glume being almost as long as the empty ones, much more coriaceous and obtuse, and with fewer shorter hairs on the callus; in the very short awn inserted far above the middle of the back of the glume; and in the process of the rhachilla being shorter and less hairy.
19. DICHELACHNE, Endl.
Tall slender grasses. Leaves narrow, flat or convolute. Spikelets 1-flowered, numerous, arranged in long and narrow usually dense panicles; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes, very slightly or not at all produced beyond the flower. Glumes 3; 2 outer subequal or slightly unequal, empty, persistent, narrow, sharply acuminate, keeled, membranous; 3rd or flowering glume almost as long, keeled, entire or shortly 2-fid, furnished with a long flexuous awn inserted on the back just below the tip, base of the glume with a hairy callus. Palea slightly shorter than the glume, narrow, 2-nerved. Stamens 2–3. Styles short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain narrow, enclosed in the slightly hardened flowering glume and palea.
The genus is confined to the two following species, both of which extend to Australia and Tasmania.
| Panicle dense. Spikelets ⅓ in. Awn 1 in., not twisted at the base | 1. D. crinita. |
| Panicle lax. Spikelets ¼ in. Awn ½–¾ in., usually twisted at the base | 2. D. sciurea. |
1. D. crinita, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 293.—Annual. Culms tufted, tall, slender, erect, 2–3 ft. high, leafy at the base. Leaves much shorter than the culms, flat or convolute, glabrous or the lower ones sometimes softly pubescent; margins smooth or slightly scaberulous; sheaths grooved, the upper rather long; ligules short, broad. Panicle very dense and spike-like, 3–6 in. long or more, bristling with the numerous awns which almost conceal the spikelets, pale-green, shining; branches numerous, short, erect. Spikelets ¼–⅓ in. long. Two outer glumes more or less unequal, very narrow, long-acuminate, membranous or hyaline, keel green and scabrous; 3rd or flowering glume distinctly shorter, convolute, smooth or slightly rough, produced into a hyaline entire or 2-fid tip; awn very long, about 1 in., straight or flexuous, not twisted at the base. Palea about ¼ shorter than the flowering glume, linear, 2-nerved.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 326; Fl. Tasm. ii. 111; Benth.
