Order GRAMINE^E. 

 Genus y Poa ; Sub-Order, Festucacea. 



16. POA IMBECILLA. 



WEAK STEMMED POA. 

 (Plate LIIL, B.) 



ERAGROSTIS IMBECILLA, Bentham, Fl. Austral., VII., 643. POA IMBE- 

 CILLA, Forster, Hook, fil., FL N.Z., I, 306. POA IMBECILLA, Forster, 

 Hook, fil., Handb. Fl. N.Z., L, 337. 



A VERY weak, slender, tufted grass, common in woods. Flowers 

 November January. Culms weak, decumbent, 612 inches long. 

 Leaves very narrow, much shorter than the culms, flat ; ligule short. 

 Panicle 3 6 inches long, narrow, open, with few distant pairs or 

 whorls of capillary branches. Spikelets few, pedicelled, terminal on the 

 branches, glabrous, green, 3 8 flowered. Empty glumes 3-nerved. 

 Flowering glume 5-nerved. Palea bifid, 2-nerved. Scale oblique. 

 Anthers short. DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : AUSTRALIA, NEW 

 ZEALAND. 



A distinct grass from the last species in its smaller flaccid forms, but con- 

 nected by varieties. It is a grass of shaded places, and has little to recommend it 

 as a pasture plant. This grass is one of a small group allied to Poa avceps, of 

 which Poo Mackayi forms the connecting link. It might have been more syste- 

 matic to have arranged this group as varieties of Poa Mackayi, similar to Poa 

 anceps varieties, and distinguished them by the absence of flocculent silky hairs 

 at the base of the flowering glume and short anthers ; but as this has been done in 

 the key to the species, the retaining specific names will conduce more to their 

 easy discrimination. DISTRIBUTION IN NEW ZEALAND : NOT UNCOMMON IN 

 SHADED PLACES IN BOTH ISLANDS. 



Reference to Plate LIIL, B. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4,4'. 

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

 Palea. 7. Scale. 



