Order GRAMINE^E. 

 Genus, Poa ; Sub-Order, Festucacece. 



6. POA COLENSOI. 



COLENSO'S POA. 



(Plate XLVHI., B.) 

 POA COLENSOI, Hook. fil. Handb. Fl. N.Z., I., 340. 



A SAMLL tufted grass, from near sea level to 6000 feet altitude. Flowers 

 December February. Perennial. Culms i 10 inches high, smooth, 

 slender, grooved. Leaves much shorter than the culms, usually curved 

 and straggling, involute, filiform ; sheaths grooved, with a large mem- 

 branous sheathing ligule. Panicle i 2 inches long, broadly ovate, of 

 few capillary spreading branches, each bearing i or 2 broad flat spike- 

 lets. Spikelets & inch long, 3- -4 flowered. Empty glumes 3 nerved. 

 Flowering glumes ovate, acuminate, 5-nerved, scabridus, and with short 

 hairs at the base. Palea 2-fid, 2-nerved. Scales oblique, narrow, accu- 

 minate. Anthers long. Grain smooth, linear. DISTRIBUTION OF 

 SPECIES : NEW ZEALAND. 



The New Zealand group of Poas having deep rooting tufts, and among which 

 the present species is included, occupy an important place in the pastures of 

 New Zealand. They all possess in virtue of this root structure, a highly recu- 

 perative power after apparent destruction by drought or fire, which should 

 recommend them as permanent grasses, in preference to many introduced species 

 having surface spreading roots, and which are better adopted for rotation crops. 

 The grass under notice is everywhere closely cropped by all kinds of stock, and 

 even in the absence of any analysis, may be accepted as a grass of first-class 

 quality. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND: NORTH ISLAND: RUAHINE 

 MOUNTAINS Colenso : TARARUA MOUNTAINS H. H. Travers. SOUTH 

 ISLAND: NELSON Sinclair, Munro, Travers, Kirk; RANGITATA RANGE, 

 (25000 feet) Sinclair, Haast, Kirk, Armstrong ; OTAGO LAKE DISTRICT 

 Hector and Buchanan ; DUNED1N DISTRICT and SOUTHLAND 

 Buchanan. 



Reference to Plate XLV1II., B. Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 

 4, 4'. Nervation of empty glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nerva- 

 tion of Palea. 7. Scale. 8, 8' Grain, front and side views. 



