POA, Linn. 



SPIKELETS mostly 2 to 6-flowered, in loose or close (rarely in spike-like) 

 panicles; rhachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the valves 

 glabrous or scantily and minutely hairy. Flowers hermaphrodite or the upper 



imperfect. 



GLUMES thin, membranous, keeled, acute or obtuse, 1 to 3-nerved. Valves 

 membranous, sometimes rather firm, obtuse or acute, 5 to 7 -nerved ; callus small, 

 obtuse, often with a tuft of long wool. Pales -shorter than the valves, 2-keeled.' 

 Lodicules 2, more or less 2-lobed. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous. Styles short, 

 free, stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain ovoid, oblong or linear, often 

 grooved, free or adherent to the pale ; hilum punctiform, basal ; embryo small. 



ANNUAL OR PERENNIAL ; blades flat and flaccid or convolute and more or less 

 rigid ; ligules hyaline. Panicles open, often effuse, rarely contracted, spike-like. 

 Spikelets rather small, awnless. 



Numerous species in the temperate regions, particularly of the northern 

 hemisphere, few in the tropics. 



PLATE 453. 



POA TRIVIALTS, Linn. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 714). 



Nat. Order Graminepe. 



PERENNIAL, loosely tufted, glabrous. CULMS geniculately ascending, usually 

 from a short arched rooting base, 1^ to 2 feet long, terete or subcompressed below, 

 scabrid above, rarely smooth all along, about 3-noded ; internodes exserted ; sheaths 

 somewhat loose, striate, smooth or rough, the lower thin ; ligules ovate-oblong, 2 

 to .T lines long ; blades linear, acute, 2 to 5 inches by 1 to 3 lines, usually flat and 

 flaccid, scaberulous. 



PANICLE oblong to ovate or pyramidal when open, erect or slightly nodding, 

 3 to 7 inches long ; rhachis usually smooth below ; branches in distant semiwhorls 

 of 4 to fi (mostly of 5), unequal, filiform, scaberulous, the longest up to 3 inches 

 long and undivided often for more than half their length, distantly or closely 

 branched, ultimate branchlets closely f> to 2-spiculate ; lateral pedicels very short. 



SPIKELETS green or purplish, ovate to oblong, acute, i to 2 lines long, 3 to 

 4 -flowered. 



GLUMES subequal, rather firm, lower narrow, oblong, acute, Ij to 1^ line long, 

 1 -nerved, keel scaberulous, upper glume ovate and acuminate, Ij line long, 

 3-nerved ; side-nerves prominent, keel very scabrid. Valves oblong, acute, rather 

 firm, lower l line long, pubescent along the keel to the middle, otherwise glabrous, 

 side-nerves rather prominent ; callus with a small tuft of very long wool. Pales 

 \\ line long, 2-toothed, keels finely and very densely scabrid. Anthers 1 line long. 

 Grain J line long, grooved. 



Habitat : NATAL. Without precise locality, Buchanan 33. 

 Drawn from Buchanan's 33, which was very kindly lent for the purpose by 

 the Director of the Herbarium at Kew ; the plant is not in our coll 



Fiff 1, Spikelet ; 2, lower -lame ; 15, upper glume ; 4, valve in profile ; 5 pale ; 6, pistil, 

 stamens, nn<l Jodicules. All enlarged. 



