Order GRAMINE^E. 

 Genus, Poa; Sub- Order, Festucacece. 



3. POA ANCEPS, VAR. a., ELATA. 



NODDING PLUMED POA. 

 (Plate, XLIV., A.) 



POA ANCEPS, Forst; Var. A., elata, Hook, fil., Fl. N.Z., I., 306; POA 

 ANCEPS, Forst., Var. A., elata, Hook, fil., Handb. FL, N.Z., I., 339. 



A LARGE tufted, or tussac grass, found at low altitudes. Perennial. 

 Culm erect, stout, leafy, 2 3 feet high, glabrous, striated, compressed 

 at the base. Leaves longer than the culm, distichous, flexuose, flat, 

 smooth and finely striated ; sheaths narrow, sharply keeled on the 

 back; ligiile very short. Panicle inclined or drooping, 6 12 inches 

 long, ovate, effuse ; branches whorled, capillary. Spikelets numerous, 

 i J inch long, flat, 4 6 flowered, green, finely scabridus. Empty 

 glumes, 3-nerved. Flowering glume, 5 -nerved, and with tufts of long 

 flocculent silky hairs at the base. Palea 2-fid, 2-nerved. Scale acute 

 or obtuse. Anthers long. DISTRIBUTION OF VAR. A., ELATA : NEW 

 ZEALAND. 



An abundant grass in the North Island, very variable in size. The large 

 drooping panicle and lax leaves much longer than the culm, form its best distinc- 

 tion from the next variety, B. foliosa, and its broad leaves and large spikelets 

 from Poa Australia, var. Icnvis. Often assuming the large tussacy habit of the 

 latter species in both islands, and affording in some districts, an abundant supply 

 of a course, though nutritious food for horses and cattle ; this is one of the larger 

 grasses of which a considerable part is always refused by stock, through their 

 inability to graze it, but which would be readily eaten, if cut down, and cured as 

 hay, in the flowering season. The present grass may be considered as the type of 

 the genus in New Zealand, being connected by a gradation of varieties with all the 

 other species. The varying form of the scale, as its growth proceeds, is very 

 marked in the genus Poa. Thus, in the early stage of growth, it is very short 

 and obtuse, and continues increasing in length and acuteness, till the grain is fully 



