Poa.] CLIII. GRAMINE^. 1915 



Perennials. Grain enclosed in the glume and palea, but free from them. 



Leaves setaoeous or rigid and convolute or flat, ending in long points. 

 Panicle dense and contracted or spreading. Spikelets usually 4 to 6- 

 flowered. O-lumes and palea glabrous, or with woolly-hairs at the base 1. P. caspkosa. 



Leaves flat, narrow, acuminate. Panicle rather dense. Spikeleti 5 to 8- 

 flowered, the keels of the flumes ciliate-pubescent. Stems knotty at the 



base 2. P. nodosa. 



Annual. Leaves flat, flaccid. 



Panicle loose. Spikelets 2 lines long. Flowering glumes 3-nerved, glabrous 

 or minutely silky hairs 3. P. 'annva. 



1. P. CSespitOSa (tufted), Fomt.: Spreng. Mant. i. Fl. Hal. 33, and in Mem,. 

 Acad. Petersb. ii. (1807-8), 302, t. 8 ; Bentk. Fl. Austr. vii. 651. An exceedingly 

 variable species from under 1ft. to 3ft. high, usually densely tufted and glabrous. 

 Leaves narrow, flat, convolute or setaceous, chiefly at the base, sometimes longer 

 than the inflorescence, sometimes very short, the ligula always very short or 

 obsolete. Panicle branched, compact or spreading. Spikelets usually 4 to 

 6-flowered. Flowering glumes usually surrounded by a few fine woolly hairs 

 but sometimes the whole spikelet glabrous, the cilia of the palea-keels when 

 present very minute. Grain oblong, usually narrow, enclosed in the glume and 

 palea but free from them. — P. aiistralis, P. lavis, P- plehia, and P. affinis, R. Br. 

 Prod. 179 ; P. austi-alis, Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 128. 



Hab.: Districts bordering on N.S. Wales, Beckler, Bailey. 



A most variable grass as to size, sometimes forming large tussac-like tufts, at other times 

 it has but a delicate growth. It is, however, a valuable pasture grass, and readily eatea 

 by all kinds of stock. 



Var. latifolia. Very tall and luxuriant, with flat leaves often 2 to 4 lines broad. 



This is a tall luxuriant grass, well worthy of cultivation ; its broad leaves and large panicles 

 of flowers remind one somewhat of the Guinea-grass. It seems to be naturally a mountain 

 grass ; its only known Queensland habitat is summit of Mount Mistake Bange. 



2. P. nodosa (knotted), i^««s in PI. Preiss. ii. 105; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 



653. Stems usually about 2ft. high, forming at the base 1,2 or 3 superposed 

 globular or ovoid nodules, 3 or 4 lines diameteri Leaves long, narrow, flat, 

 usually scabrous. Panicle loose, narrow or spreading. Spikelets 3 to 4 lines 

 long, 5 to 8-flowered, rather narrow at first with closely appressed glumes, at 

 length, broad and flat, the glumes spreading out. Flowering glumes about 2 lines 

 long, 5-nerved, without the woolly hairs at the base of most Poas, but shortly 

 ciliate-pubescent at the keel and margins below the middle. Palea nearly as 

 long, the keels minutely ciliate-pubescent or glabrous. Grain free. — F. v. M. 

 Fragm. viii. 132 ; P. bnzochloa, F. v. M. in Trans. Vict. Inst. 1855, 45 ; P. 

 BrumnnondimM, Neea in Hook. Lond. Journ. ii. 418; P- corjnata, Steud. Byn. 

 Glum. i. 262. 



Hab.: Recorded for Queensland by F. v. U. 



When fully out the spikelets are broad almost like those of a Briza, but sometimes they are 

 lanceolate close and rather thick, but apparently the difference is owing to a different stage of 

 development rather than to any distinction of race.— Bent/i. 



3. P. *annua (annual), Linn.; Kunth, Fnum. i. 319; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 



654. A tufted annual, often only 2 or 3in., and rarely 1ft. high. Leaves flat, 

 flaccid. Panicle loose and spreading. Spikelets shortly pedicellate, about 2 lines 

 long, 3 to 6-flowered, the rhachis glabrous. Flowering glumes more or less 

 distinctly 5-nerved, with a hyaline apex, the keel often minutely silky-hairy. 

 Grain free, oblong. 



Hab.: A common grass in the northern hemisphere. A naturalised weed in various southern 

 localities. 



87. GLYCERIA, R. Br. 



(Referring to the sweet herbage.) 

 Spikelets several-flowered, pedicellate in a narrow or spreading panicle, th& 

 rhachis of the spikelet articulate under the flowering glumes, glabrous or rarely 

 hairy. Outer empty glumes obtuse or acute, unawned. Flowering glumes 



