Poa.: GRAMINEA. 903 
rhachis slender, smooth ; branches short, erect, Lin. long, quite 
smooth and glabrous, bearing 3-4 shortly pedicelled spikelets. 
Spikelets compressed, 1-tin. long, 3—5-flowered. Two empty 
slumes slightly unequal, about half as long as the spikelet, lanceo- 
late, acuminate, glabrous ; the lower 1-nerved; the upper broader, 
3-nerved. Flowering glumes lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, 5-nerved 
with the lateral nerves faint, smooth and glabrous, callus at the base 
glabrous or with a tuft of crisped woolly hairs. Palea } shorter 
than the flowering glume. Anthers long, linear, 2 as long as the 
palea.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 338. 
AUCKLAND AND CAMPBELL IsLANDS: Abundant near the sea, Sir J. D. 
Hooker ! 
Of this species I have only seen a single panicle from one of Hooker’s 
Campbell Island specimens, and in default of further information, the above 
description is based upon that given in the ‘‘ Flora Antarctica.’’ Hooker 
remarks that ‘“‘ this is a very abundant grass in both groups of islands, and of 
a most singular habit of growth. The culms are invariably prostrate and quite 
simple for a foot or so, when they suddenly ascend and divide into many short 
leafy branches, each bearing a panicle of flowers. It forms a copious, soft, green 
herbage, especially on the banks near the sea, always throwing its long culms 
over the edges of the cliffs, which are thus fringed with a delicate festoon of 
green.” 
5. P. polyphylla, Hack. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxv. (1903) 383.— 
Tufted ; innovation-shoots extravaginal. Culms erect or decum- 
bent at the base and then ascending, often much branched, many- 
noded, compressed, glabrous, wiry, 6-18 in. high. Leaves numerous, 
sheathing the culm, distichously spreading, 4-10in. long, about 
jin. broad, flat or complicate, lower portion smooth, upper part 
scabrid on the margins and keel; sheaths overlapping, tight, com- 
pressed, grooved ; ligules reduced to a narrow truncate rim. Panicle 
1-3 in. long by 4-1in. broad, oblong, dense, contracted; branches 
usually binate, short, erect, divided, spiculate almost to the base, 
more or less scabrid. Spikelets oblong, compressed, 4—5-flowered, 
1+tin. long. Two outer glumes unequal, lanceolate, acuminate, 
l-nerved, sharply scabrid along the keel, the upper the longer, 
rather more than halt the length of the spikelet. Flowering glumes 
lanceolate, sharply acuminate, almost mucronate, keeled, pro- 
minently 5-nerved, minutely scabrid on the surface and nerves and 
sharply scabrid along the keel, callus and lower part of keel with 
long crisped woolly hairs. Palea slightly shorter than the glume, 
linear-oblong, scabrid on the keels. Anthers long. 
KermaDeEc Istanps: Abundant on Sunday and Macaulay Islands, chiefly 
near the sea, 7’. F. C., Miss Shakespear ! 
Distinguished by the branching habit, distichously spreading leaves, short 
contracted panicle, and narrow acuminate flowering glumes, which are sharply 
scabrid on the keel, and scaberulous on the surfaces and veins. 
