PASTURE PLANTS AND PASTURES OF NEW ZEALAND. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE COMMON PASTURE GRASSES. 



The majority of the pastures in New Zealand will be 

 found clothed with only some four or five grasses, but in 

 exceptional circumstances some dozen additional species 

 may be found. It is the design of this chapter to describe 

 these grasses so that they may be recognised and named, 

 to discuss their value as fodder, and their suitability to 

 difEerent classes of soils. 



In the description of a grass, the leafage is of most im- 

 portance because that is to be found all the year round, 

 while the flowers can be found for only a short period. 

 The following terms are used in describing the leafy portion 

 of a grass : — The sheath is the part in which aU the leaves are 

 folded together to make a kind of a stem from which the 

 blades of the leaf spring. The ligule is a transparent mem- 

 branous flap standing up at the junction of the sheath and 

 the blade. Its presence or absence and its shape when 



present are very 

 important points in 

 identifying grasses. 

 It can be very plainly 

 seen in Cocksfoot 

 and Prairie Grass for 

 example. The ears 

 are a pair of hooked 

 structures springing 

 from the base of the 

 leaf blade and more 

 or less enfolding the sheath. They are very well developed in 

 barley. A rhizome is an underground creeping stem, giving 

 off roots downwards and frequently leaves upwards at 



■ c 



Fig. 1.— A : Base of blade. B : Ligule. C : Sheath. 



Note pointed ears between B and C in the 



right-hand specimen {after Ward). 



