Order GRAMINEZE. 
Genus Poa. 
Sub-Order Festucace/e. 
12—POA MACKAYI, sr.s. 
BROWN MOUNTAIN POA. 
(Plate LI. A.) 
A tufted, brownish-green, alpine grass, found at 4000—5000 feet altitude. Flowers January— 
March. Perennial. Culms 8—14 inches high, smooth and grooved. Leaves shorter than the culms, 
erect, flat. Sheaths grooved ; ligule long, acute. Panicle erect, 3—4 inches long, ovate, of few branches 
in distant pairs, having a few large spikelets at the extremities. Spihelets J inch long, nearly as broad, 
3—4-flowered. Empty glumes 3-nerved. Flowering glume scabridous on the nerves only, tipped purple, 
5-nerved, and with a small tuft of flocculent silky hair at the base. Palea bifid, 2-nerved. Scale 
oblique, tapering, obtuse. Anthers short. Grain long, linear. Distribution of Species : NEW 
ZEALAND. 
A showy grass with brownish-green leaves and purple-tipped glumes, presenting, when in flower, a 
very striking aspect amongst the alpine flora of the Tararua and Mount Arthur Mountains, where it is 
found in large patches of close-growing tufts, resembling a cultivated crop. This grass has been grown 
successfully in pots at Wellington by Mr. H. H. Travers, and from its bulk and succulent habit it can 
be recommended as a grass which would likely repay the trouble and expense of its cultivation. In a 
systematic point of view it connects Poa anceps varieties with Poa Kirhii , Poa breviglumis, and Poa 
imbecilla. Distribution of Species in New Zealand : NORTH ISLAND: TARARUA 
MOUNTAINS (3000 feet altitude)—H. H. Travers. SOUTH ISLAND: MOUNT ARTHUR 
RANGE (4200 feet altitude)—A. Mackay. 
Reference to Plate LI. 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'. Grain, front 
and side views. 
