914 GRAMINEA. (Poa. 
Spikelets compressed, pale-green, 4,1 in. long, 3-4-flowered. Two 
outer glumes very unequal, small, several times less than the 
length of the spikelet; lower minute, ovate, obtuse, 1-nerved ; 
upper three times the length, broadly ovate, concave, 3-nerved, 
obtuse or truncate or erose at the tip. Flowering glumes ovate- 
oblong, acute, prominently 3-nerved, glabrous, smooth or minutely 
scabrid on the keel and nerves. Palea shorter than the glume, 
linear-oblong, ciliate on the keels. Anthers broadly oblong, minute, 
about ¢g5 in. long.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 337 (in part). 
AUCKLAND Isnanps: Kirk! Chapman! Camppety Is~tAnD: Sir J. D. 
Hooker ! 
Of this species I have only seen a fragment of one of Hooker’s Campbell 
Island specimens, and two or three collected on the Auckland Islands by Kirk 
and Chapman. All these differ from P. imbecilla in the very unequal and much 
more minute outer glumes, and in the prominently nerved and acute flowering 
glumes. How far these characters are constant can only be ascertained from 
the imspection of a larger series of specimens. The New Zealand examples 
referred to P. breviglwmis in the Handbook are probably referable to P. imbe- 
cilla var. Matthews. 
29. ATROPIS, Rupr. 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves linear, flat or plicate or 
convolute; ligules hyaline. Spikelets 3- to many-flowered, narrow, 
laterally compressed or almost cylindric, in open or contracted 
panicles ; rhachilla disarticulating above the two outer glumes and 
between the flowering glumes, glabrous, produced beyond the 
uppermost flower. Two outer glumes persistent, broad, empty, 
unequal, rounded on the back, 1-3-nerved. Flowering glumes 
broad, oblong, obtuse, rounded on the back, 5-nerved, nerves often 
obscure. Palea nearly as long as the flowering glume, 2-keeled. 
Lodicules 2, large, ovate, usually distinct. Stamens 3. Ovary 
glabrous; styles wanting; stigmas plumose. Grain enclosed in 
the hardened flowering glume and palea, oblong, almost semi- 
terete ; hilum small, basal, punctiform. 
A small genus of 12 or 14 species, mostly from the temperate regions of the 
Northern Hemisphere. It differs from Poa principally in the flowering glumes 
being rounded on the back, not keeled. 
Panicle contracted, lax; branches distant. Spikelets 
4-4in., 5-9-flowered. Empty glumes very small .. Ly Avstrieta: 
Panicle contracted, dense ; branches close. Spikelets ¢in., 
4-flowered. Empty glumes longer, half the length of 
the spikelet ae ee 5c SC: .. 2,A.nove-zealandia. 
A. pumila, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 379, is Triodia 
pumila, Hack. 
1. A. stricta, Hack. MSS.—Annual. Culms tufted, strict, erect, 
quite glabrous, leafy, 3-4-noded, the uppermost node below the 
middle, 6-18 in. high. Leaves sheathing almost the whole of the 
