Var. Cheesemanii, Hack. MSS.—Culms slender. Leaves pale-green, complicate, compressed, not terete and rush-like when dry, strongly ribbed on both surfaces; margins and ribs on the back rough and scabrid. Panicle-branches scaberulous. Awn rarely twisted.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: From Mount Hikurangi and Mount Egmont southwards, abundant in hilly and mountain districts. Sea-level to 5000 ft. "Snow-grass." Var. Cheesemanii: Open forests near the source of the Takaka River, Nelson, altitude 3000 ft., T.F.C.
A most abundant plant in the elevated hilly districts of the South Island, often forming the major portion of the vegetation over large areas. I agree with Professor Hackel in considering D. flavescens to be simply a broad-leaved state of D. Raoulii, in point of fact the two forms graduate into one another so insensibly that it is impossible to draw a strict line of demarcation between them.
5. D. crassiuscula, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 224.—Culms tufted, forming lax tussocks, stout, strict, erect, leafy, 6–18 in. high. Leaves shorter or rarely longer than the culms, distichous, rigid and coriaceous, curved, gradually narrowed to the tips but not drawn out into filiform points, strongly involute, compressed, smooth and polished on the back, with numerous thick veins in front, margins smooth; sheaths stout, much broader than the blade, smooth, grooved, margins thinner and scarious; ligules reduced to an obscure band of short stiff hairs. Panicle short, lax, broadly ovate, 1½–3 in. long; branches few, spreading, 2–3-spiculate, and with the rhachis more or less silky-pubescent. Spikelets about iin. long without the awns, 4–7-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, lanceolate, 3–5-nerved, the longer frequently ⅘ the length of the entire spikelet. Flowering glumes densely silky at the base, and with long silky hairs on the margins and back for about half their length, 7–9-nerved, the nerves connected by transverse veins at about the level of the awn, tip deeply bifid, the lobes pointed but not awned; central awn ¼–⅓ in. long, flat at the base and often twisted. Palea slightly shorter than the glume.
South Island: Canterbury—Mountains above the Broken River, T.F.C.; Upper Waimakariri, Cockayne! Westland—Kelly's Hill, Petrie! Otago—Mount Arnould, Hector Mountains, Petrie! mountains above Lake Harris, Longwood Range, Kirk! Stewart Island: Mount Anglem, Kirk! 3500–6000 ft.
Closely allied to D. Raoulii, but a smaller and proportionately stouter plant, with shorter compressed leaves not drawn out into filiform points, much smaller panicles with silky-pubescent branches, smaller spikelets with longer outer glumes, and with the nerves of the flowering glumes connected by transverse veinlets.
6. D. pungens, Cheesem. n. sp.—Culms densely tufted, branched at the base, forming irregular patches about 1 ft. across, smooth, slender, rigid, 2–6 in. high. Leaves mostly at the base of the culms and much shorter than them, distichous, 1½–3 in. long, about 110 in. broad at the base, gradually tapering upwards into a pungent point,
