Order GRAMINE^. 



Genus, Poa ; Sub- Order, Festucacece. 



15. POA BREVIGLUMIS. 



SHORT GLUMED POA. 



(Plate LIIL, A.) 



POA BREVIGLUMIS, Hook, fil., Fl. Antarct, I., 101. POA BREVIGLUMIS, 

 Hook, fil., Handb. FL N.Z., I. 337. 



A SMALL tufted grass, found from sea level to 1000 feet altitude. 

 Flowers December February. Perennial. Culms 10 16 inches 

 high, erect, decumbent at the base, smooth. Leaves much shorter than 

 the culms, very narrow, flat, soft ; sheaths striated ; ligule oblong, mem- 

 branous. Panicle erect, 3 5 inches long, open, branches capillary, in 

 distant pairs or ternate. Spikelets few, pedicelled near the ends of the 

 branches, glabrous, green, 3 4 flowered. Empty ghimes i and 3- 

 nerved. Flowering glume with 5 scabridous nerves. Palea bifid, 

 2-nerved. Scale oblique, acute. Anthers short. DISTRIBUTION OF 

 SPECIES : CAMPBELL ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND. 



This species is closely allied to Poa Kirkil, but generally found with a much 

 larger open panicle and smaller spikelets. When found on good soil, it might 

 easily be mistaken for a small green spikelet variety of that grass. It is a grass 

 chiefly of maritine habits, but is also common inland on low hills. It passes 

 insensibly into the next species, Poa imbecUla, by an appparent depauperation, 

 produced by poverty of soil ; but, in its larger forms, is a distinct species, and 

 sufficiently bulky to constitute it a valuable grass. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW 

 ZEALAND: COMMON IN BOTH ISLAND IN MARITIME SITUATIONS, 

 AND ON INLAND HILLS. 



Reference to Plate LIU., A. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4, 4'. 

 Nervation of empty glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation of 

 Palea. 7. Scale. 8, 8. v Grain, front and side views. 



