Order GRAMINEZE. 
Genus Poa. 
Sub-Order Festucace^e. 
6.—POA COLENSOI. 
CQLENSO’S POA. 
{Plate XL VIII. B.) 
Poa Colensoi. Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. FI., I., 340. 
A small tufted grass, from near sea-level to 6000 feet altitude. Flowers December—February. 
Perennial. Culms 1—10 inches high, smooth, slender, grooved. Leaves much shorter than the culms, 
usually curved and straggling, involute, filiform; sheaths grooved, with a large membranous sheathing 
ligule. Panicle 1—2 inches long, broadly ovate, of few capillary spreading branches, each bearing 1 or 
2 broad flat spikelets. Spikelets ^ inch long, 3—4-flowered. Empty glumes 3-nerved. Flowering 
glumes ovate, acuminate, 3-nerved, scabridous, and with short hairs at the base. Palea 2-fid, 2-nerved. 
Scales oblique, narrow, acuminate. 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 recuperative 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 adapted 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 1 ST.AND : RUAHINE 
MOUNTAINS—Colenso; TARARUA MOUNTAINS—H. H. Travers. SOUTH ISLAND: 
NELSON—Sinclair, Munro, Travers, Kirk; RANGITATA RANGE (2000—5000 feet)—Sinclair, 
Haast, Kirk, Armstrong; OTAGO LAKE DISTRICT — Hector and Buchanan; DUNEDIN 
DISTRICT AND SOUTHLAND—Buchanan. 
Reference to Plate XLVIII. 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. 8, 8'. Grain, 
front and side views. 
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