flowering glume being minutely 2-toothed at the apex with a short awn protruding from below the sinus, whereas in E. cristata the flowering glume is entire and not awned. I find that the awn varies much in length, and is frequently almost obsolete.
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 3. 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 100 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 discrimination, but nowhere more so than in New Zealand. Of the 23 species admitted in this work, two 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., and P. pratensis, Linn., descriptions of which will be found in any British Flora.
| 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 115–110 in. long, linear. | |
| Culms 1–4 ft., leafy throughout. Leaves flat, ⅓–¾ in. broad. Panicle 3–10 in. Flowering glumes prominently 5-nerved, callus and lower part of keel and margins villous with crisped hairs | 1. P. foliosa. |
| Culms 3–18 in., leafy at the base. Leaves flat, 112–14 in. broad. Panicle 1–4 in. Flowering glumes faintly 5-nerved, glabrous except a tuft of crisped hairs on the callus | 2. P. novæ-zealandiæ. |
| Culms 6–24 in., densely tufted. Leaves terete, filiform. Panicle 1–3 in. Flowering glumes prominently 5-nerved, densely scabrid, rarely with crisped hairs at the base | 3. P. litorosa. |
| Culms 8–18 in., naked and decumbent below, branched and erect above. Leaves flat, flaccid. Panicle 1–2 in. Flowering glumes faintly 5-nerved, smooth and glabrous or a tuft of crisped hairs on the callus | 4. P. ramosissima. |
| Culms 6–18 in., branched, distichously leafy. Leaves flat, 110 in. broad. Panicle 1–3 in. Flowering glumes prominently 5-nerved, sharply scabrid on the keel, lower part of keel and callus with crisped hairs | 5. P. polyphylla. |
