Poo wrerllea Pots “risus Sa -U\QRes: svt Sf teu 
Poa. | GRAMINEAE. 191 
above more or less scabrid with stiff silky hairs. Palea shorter than the 
flowering glumes, 2-nerved, the nerves slightly scaberulous. 
SoutH Istanp: Wet places at the head of Deep Cove, and others of the West 
Coast Sounds of Otago, B. C. Aston / 
7. P. ramosissima Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i (1844) 101.—Culms very 
numerous, densely packed, forming large prostrate masses on steep banks, 
or pendent from moist cliffs, 12-18in. long, naked at the base or clothed 
with the remains of the old leaves, many-noded, much and fasciculately 
branched above. Branches many times divided, slender, leafy, flaccid, 
2-9in. long. Leaves much longer than the culms, 3-6in. long, ys—#1n. 
broad, narrow linear-subulate, acute, flat, flaccid, quite smooth and glabrous, 
obsoletely striate ; sheaths long, slender, smooth, striate, fissured to the 
base; ligules oblong, membranous, lacerate.. Panicle dense and con- 
tracted, linear-oblong, erect, 1-2in. long, 4-4in. broad; rhachis slender, 
smooth; branches short, erect, din. long, quite smooth and glabrous, 
bearing 38-4 shortly pedicelled spikelets. Spikelets #-4+in. long, ovate- 
lanceolate, acute, compressed, 3-5-flowered. Two empty glumes subequal, 
rather more than 4 as long as the spikelet, lanceolate, acuminate, often 
incurved at the tips, glabrous; the lower l-nerved, the upper broader, 
s-nerved. Flowering glumes ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, 5-nerved, 
but the lateral nerves obscure, smooth and glabrous, callus at the base 
glabrous or with a tuft of crisped hairs. Palea linear-oblong, shorter than 
the flowering glume. Anthers long, linear.—-Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. #1. 
(1864) 338; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 902; Cockayne Veg. N.Z. 
(1921) t. 88. 
AUCKLAND AND CAMPBELL ISLANDS: Abundant near the sea, Hooker! Cockayne ! 
B. C. Aston! and others. 
Sir J. D. Hooker remarks that “this is a very abundant grass in both groups of 
islands, and of a most singular habit of growth. The culms are invariably prostrate 
and quite simple for a foot or two, when they suddenly ascend and divide into many 
short branches, each bearing a panicle of flowers. It forms a copious soft green herbage, 
especially on the banks near the sea, always throwing its long culms over the edges of 
the clifis, which are thus fringed with a delicate festoon of green.” 
8. P. Guthrie-Smithiana Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xlv (1918) 275.— 
Culms densely tufted, creeping or prostrate at the base, many-noded, 
emitting from the nodes numerous intravaginal excessively slender erect 
or ascending branches 5-10in. long. Leaves shorter than the culms, 
very narrow-linear, almost filiform, complicate, firm, erect, smooth and 
glabrous, obscurely striate, acute ; sheaths long, much broader than the 
blade, fissured to the base, thin, striate ; ligule thin, membranous, acute. 
Panicle 2-4 in. long, narrow-linear, dense, strict and erect ; branches short, 
erect, in whorls of 3-5, minutely scaberulous. Spikelets shortly pedi- 
celled, $-tin. long, 3-5-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, barely 
+ the length of the spikelet, lanceolate, acute, glabrous; lower 1]-nerved, 
upper faintly 3-nerved. Flowering glumes oblong-lanceolate, acute or 
subacute, keeled, smooth and glabrous, 3-nerved, the central nerve often 
excurrent, margins thin and scarious, callus and base of keel with a few 
long crisped hairs. Palea nearly as long as the glume, linear-oblong, 
ciliate on the keels, @pfeo. Trans 73-236 Places Mii ro 
RP. Celews vi Var. Gulhras- Seriahh t acne 
HEREKOPERE ISLAND (off Stewart Island): H. Guthrie-Smith ! 
The above description has been drawn up from cultivated specimens grown in Mr. 
Petrie’s garden, and may need revision when wild specimens are available. The species 
is remarkable for its slender habit, filiform leaves, and extremely narrow panicle. 
