Graminee.) FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 307 
near the Bay of Islands. Culms a span high, leafy at the very base only. Leaves 2-3 inches long, thick, curving. 
Panicle ovate, contracted. Spikelets short, broad, three- or four-flowered ; florets placed close together.  Glumes 
short, broad, sharp. Lower palea very blunt, broad, very villous at the base. This closely resembles the P. 
pratensis, L., of Europe. 
3. Poa affinis, Br.; elata, culmis compressis, foliis distichis glaberrimis planis, ligula brevissima, 
panicula effusa v. contracta, glumis scabridis acuminatis flosculo longioribus brevioribusve, flosculis 1-6 
remotis angustis scaberulis basi villosis.—P. affinis, Br. Prodr. P. cespitosa, Forst. ? Prodr. Ram. et 
Schultes Syst. p. 536. Sprengel in Mem. Acad. Petrop. 1810, p. 302. 
Var. a. multiflora; panicula effusa, glumis 4-6-floris flosculo brevioribus. 
Var. B. agrostoidea ; sepius scaberula, panicula contracta, glumis 1—2-floris flosculo longioribus.— 
An Agrostis rigida, 4. Rich. Flor. ? 
Has. Northern Island. Var. a. Hawkes’ Bay, Colenso. Var. B. Ahuriri, Colenso; Great Barriére 
Island, Sinclair. 
A very similar plant indeed to P. anceps, but the glumes are fewer-flowered, sharp and scabrid.—Zeaves long 
and flat. Culms 2 feet high. Panicle very large and effuse, upwards of a span long in var. a, which has many- 
flowered glumes; contracted in var. 6, in which the glumes are one- to three-flowered. —The variety of this plant 
with one flower in each spikelet might well be mistaken for an Agrostis: the glumes are often longer than the 
floret, and always very scabrid. 
4. Poa Zevis, Br.; glaberrima v. scaberula, culmis cespitosis foliosis, foliis culmo brevioribus 
eeguilongisve rigidis setaceo-involutis filiformibusve strictis curvisve, panicula laxa ovata effusa ramis 
capillaribus, glumis acutis glabriusculis 8-6-foris, flosculis remotis basi nudis villosisve apice scariosis.— 
Br. Prodr. 
Var. a. brevifolia ; parvula, glaberrima, culmis foliis longiore, panicula elongata effusa. 
Var. 8. filifolia; culmis foliis filiformibus eeguilongis v. longioribus, panicula elongata, spiculis ramis 
inferioribus subspicatis. 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands: Taupo plains, Ruahine range, etc., Colenso; Otago, Lyall ; 
Aglionby plains, Monro. Var. 8. Akaroa, Raoul; Taupo plains and Tarawera, Colenso. 
A very pretty species, common in Tasmania, and there extremely variable, becoming scabrid all over, and 
passing into forms resembling the P. affinis and P. anceps.—A span to 24 feet high, perfectly smooth. Culms rigid, 
tufted, slender and leafless above, densely leafy at the base. Leaves rigid, filiform or setaceous, polished, as long 
or shorter than the culm. Panicle small, few-flowered, broadly ovate, of few capillary spreading branches, each 
bearing a large broad spikelet of four to six spreading florets, or elongate, with slender branches bearing sessile 
spikelets. Glumes sharp. Florets distant, quite glabrous or webbed at the base, membranous at the blunt tips. 
—Var. ais a small plant, 3 inches to a span high, with short, rigid, curving, subulate foliage, and a small broad 
panicle, of few capillary one-flowered branches.—In var. 8 the culms are two feet long. Leaves erect, very numerous 
and slender, rigid, wiry, filiform, as long as the culm. Panicles 3-5 inches long, slender, few-flowered, effuse ; 
branches few, distant, capillary, the lower bearing several sessile or shortly pedicelled spikelets. This variety 
differs widely in appearance from the former, but the species is so extremely variable in Tasmania, that I dare not 
pronounce it distinct. 
Gen. XXIV. CATABROSA, Palis. 
Spicule 2-flore, pedicello flosculi tertii interdum accedente; flosculis hermaphroditis; inferiore sessili ; 
Superiore longe pedicellato. Gluma inszequales, concave, flosculis breviores. Palee concave, truncate, 
erosee. Sguamule 9. Stamina 3. Ovarium sessile, glabrum.—Gramina regionum temperatarum ; foliis 
Planis v. involutis ; panicula ramosa. 
A. small genus of Grasses, of which one species inhabits north temperate regions; it resembles Deschampsia in 
