Order GRAMINEflE. 
Genus Microl/ena. 
Sub-Order Oryze^e. 
3.— MICROLiEN A POLYNOD A. 
KNOT-JOINTED KICE GBASS. 
(Plate //fi) 
Diplax polynoda, Hook fil. FI. N.Z., I., 290. 
Microluna polynoda, Hook. fil. Handb. N.Z. Flora, L, 320. 
A large, glabrous, tufted grass, on open land, rambling among scrub, 3—6 feet long, ascending to 1000 
feet. Perennial. Flowers December—February. Culms slender or stout, rigid, terete, branched, with 
knots at the joints. Leaves 4—8 inches long, narrow; ligule acute, fringed with long hairs. Racemes 
simple, few-flowered; upper spikelets sessile, lower shortly pedicelled, J-inch long, awns included. 
Lowest pair of empty glumes minute, unequal, persistent; upper pair shortly awned, 7-nerved. Flowering 
glume very shortly awned, 7-nerved. Palea narrow, acute, 1-nerved. Scales large, ovate, acuminate, 
ciliate at top. Stamens 4. Anthers long, narrow. Ovary and grain not seen. Distribution of 
Species : NEW ZEALAND. 
This grass has a very limited distribution, and, having only been collected in a few localities, and 
found nowhere abundantly, little is known of its value either in pasture or as fodder. Its tough wiry 
leaves are never likely to form a sward that will afford food for sheep, while its sparse habit does not 
recommend it as fit for being cut as fodder. The larger cattle, however, seldom refusing the coarsest 
herbage, and often relishing several of the harshest-cutting Cyperacece, may find in this grass, especially 
when in flower, sufficient to induce them to eat it. As an ornamental grass it has much to recommend 
it, and it might be judiciously introduced where ponds or streams require decoration. Distribution 
in New Zealand: NORTH ISLAND: AUCKLAND NORTH—Kirk; BASE OF THE 
RUAHINE MOUNTAINS AND EAST COAST—Colenso. SOUTH ISLAND: CANTER¬ 
BURY—Armstrong ; DUNEDIN—Buchanan. 
Reference to Plate IV. : Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4,5. Nervation of upper pair 
of empty glumes. 6. Nervation of flowering glume. 7. Nervation of Palea. 8. Scale. 
