Koeleria. | GRAMINEAE. 185 
Nortu IstanpD: Kaimanawa Ranges, B. C. Aston! Soutu Istanp: Abundant in 
hilly and mountainous localities throughout. Sea-level to 4500 ft. 
Also in temperate South America (Argentina), and probably also in Australia. 
Professor Hackel distinguishes it from the northern K. cristata by the flowering glume 
being minutely 2-toothed at the apex with a short awn protruding from below the sinus, 
whereas in K. cristata the flowering glume is entire and not awned. I find that the 
awn varies much in length, and is frequently almost obsolete. 
Since the first edition of this work was published an elaborate monograph of the 
genus has been prepared by Dr. Karl Domin. In it the author has increased the number 
of species admitted in the ‘“‘ Genera Plantarum ” (12) and the “ Pflanzenfamilien ” (15) 
to no less than 61, and even then he is careful to state that several of these are 
‘* coliective species,’ and that the full number is 89. Moreover, many of his “ species ” 
are further separated into subspecies, varieties, subvarieties, forms, &c. Domin’s 
account of the variable K. cristata covers no less than 65 pages of his monograph. The 
single New Zealand species, which Professor Hackel has assured me “is quite identical” 
with the South American K. Kurtzii, Dr. Domin not only separates from that plant, 
but divides it into three species confined to New Zealand. These species are mainly, 
if not altogether, founded on a collection sent by myself to Professor Hackel, all of 
which he included, without any hesitation, under K. Kurtzii. After a careful re- 
examination, I can make no other disposition of them than that given above. In case 
any one should wish to identify them, the following key, which I have adopted from 
Domin’s work, may serve the purpose :— 
Awn dorsal. 
Small; culms not creeping at the base .. LL. K. novo-zelandica. 
Larger; culms creeping at the base .. os .. 2. K. superba. 
Awn strictly terminal .. ss ‘7 3. K. Gintlir. 
28. POA Linn. 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves flat or convolute ; ligules hyaline. 
Spikelets usually 2-6-flowered, laterally compressed, in lax or contracted 
rarely spiciform panicles; rhachilla disarticulating above the two outer 
glumes and between the flowering glumes, glabrous or sparsely hairy. 
Two outer glumes persistent, empty, keeled, membranous, 1-2-nerved, 
usually shorter than the flowering glumes. Flowering glumes obtuse or 
acute, not awned, keeled, 5-7-nerved or rarely 3-nerved, nerves often 
conniving near the top, callus and marginal nerves often clothed with crisped 
or tangled woolly hairs. Palea shorter than the flowering glume, 2-keeled. 
Lodicules 2. Stamens 8. Ovary glabrous; styles short, distinct ; stigmas 
plumose. Grain ovoid or oblong or linear-oblong, compressed, often 
grooved, free or adherent to the palea; hilum small, basal, punctiform. 
A large genus of over 150 species, comprising several important fodder-grasses, 
abundant in all temperate and cold climates, in the tropics found only on high 
mountains. The species are in all countries highly variable and difficult of discrimina- 
tion, but nowhere more so than in New Zealand. Of the 28 species admitted in 
this work, 2 extend to Australia and Tasmania, the remainder are endemic. In 
addition to the indigenous species, several others from the Northern Hemisphere are 
now well established in most districts, the most abundant being P. annua Linn., 
P. pratensis Linn., and P. trivialis Linn., descriptions of which will be found in any 
British Flora. The last-mentioned has become even naturalized near the landing-places 
on the Auckland Islands and Antipodes Island; and on account of the remoteness of 
the locality has been described as an indigenous species, under the name of P. antipoda 
(Petrie in Subantarct. Is. N.Z. ii (1909) 478). 
A. Two outer glumes reaching more than half-way up the flowering glumes immediately 
above them. Flowering glumes acuminate, often incurved at the tip. Anthers 
qis—zp tn. long, linear. LS > i, aS 
* Culms few-noded, densely tufted, erect. 
Culms 1-4 ft., leafy throughout. Leaves flat, 4—-$in. broad. 
Panicle 3-10 in. Flowering glumes prominently 5-nerved. 
Callus with base of keel and margins villous with crisped 
hairs oa a es res 34 sen Pee Ps foltosa. 
