Order GRAMINE^:. 



3. MICROL^KNA POLYNODA. 



KNOT-JOINTED RICE GBASS. 

 (Plate IV.) 



DlPLAX POLYNODA, Hook. fil. Fl. N.Z., I., 290. MlCROL^ENA 



POLYXODA, Hook. fil. Handb. N.Z. Flora, I., 320. 



A LARGE, glabrous, tufted grass, on open land, rambling among scrub, 

 3 6 feet long, ascending to 1000 feet. Perennial. Flowers December 

 February. Culms slender or stout, rigid, terete, branched, with knots 

 at the joints. I. cores 48 inches long, narrow ; ligiile acute, fringed 

 with long hairs. Racemes simple, few-flowered ; upper spikc/cts sessile,* 

 lower shortly pedicelled, -?,-inch long, awns included. Lowest pair of 

 empty pinnies minute, unequal, persistent ; upper pair shortly awned, 

 7 -nerved. Fknver ing glume very shortly awned, 7 -nerved. Falca narrow, 

 acute, i -nerved. Scales large, ovate, acuminate, ciliate at top. Stamens 

 4. Anthers long, narrow. Ovary and grain not seen. DISTRIBUTION 

 OF SPECIES : NEW ZEALAND. 



This grass has a very limited distribution, and, having only been collected in 

 a few localities, and found nowhere abundantly, little is known of its value either 

 in pasture or as fodder. Its tough wiry leaves are never likely to form a sward 

 that will afford food for sheep, while its sparse habit does not recommend it as fit 

 for being cut as fodder. The larger cattle, however, seldom refusing the coarsest 

 herbage, and often relishing several of the harshest-cutting Cyperacew, may find 

 hi this grass, especially when in flower, sufficient to induce them to eat it. As an 

 ornamental grass it has much to recommend it, and it might be judiciously intro- 

 duced where ponds or streams require decoration. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW 

 ZEALAND: NORTH ISLAND: AUCKLAND NORTH Kirk ; BASE OF 

 THE RUAHINE MOUNTAINS AND EAST COAST-Colenso. WELLING- 

 TO X Buchanan. SOUTH ISLAND : CANTERBURY- Armstrong DUNEDIN 

 --Buchanan. 



Reference to Plate IV. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4,5. 

 Nervation of upper pair of empty gluniLv, (5. Nervation of flowering glume. 

 7. Nervation of palea. 8. Scale. 



