rhachis slender, smooth; branches short, erect, ¼ in. long, quite smooth and glabrous, bearing 3–4 shortly pedicelled spikelets. Spikelets compressed, ⅕–¼ in. long, 3–5-flowered. Two empty glumes slightly unequal, about half as long as the spikelet, lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous; the lower 1-nerved; the upper broader, 3-nerved. Flowering glumes lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, 5-nerved with the lateral nerves faint, smooth and glabrous, callus at the base glabrous or with a tuft of crisped woolly hairs. Palea ¼ shorter than the flowering glume. Anthers long, linear, ⅔ as long as the palea.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 338.
Auckland and Campbell Islands: Abundant near the sea, Sir J. D. Hooker!
Of this species I have only seen a single panicle from one of Hooker's Campbell Island specimens, and in default of further information, the above description is based upon that given in the "Flora Antarctica." 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 so, when they suddenly ascend and divide into many short leafy 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 cliffs, which are thus fringed with a delicate festoon of green."
5. P. polyphylla, Hack. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxv. (1903) 383.—Tufted; innovation-shoots extravaginal. Culms erect or decumbent at the base and then ascending, often much branched, manynoded, compressed, glabrous, wiry, 6–18 in. high. Leaves numerous, sheathing the culm, distichously spreading, 4–10 in. long, about 110 in. broad, flat or complicate, lower portion smooth, upper part scabrid on the margins and keel; sheaths overlapping, tight, compressed, grooved; ligules reduced to a narrow truncate rim. Panicle 1–3 in. long by ½–1 in. broad, oblong, dense, contracted; branches usually binate, short, erect, divided, spiculate almost to the base, more or less scabrid. Spikelets oblong, compressed, 4–5-flowered, ⅕–¼ in. long. Two outer glumes unequal, lanceolate, acuminate, 1-nerved, sharply scabrid along the keel, the upper the longer, rather more than half the length of the spikelet. Flowering glumes lanceolate, sharply acuminate, almost mucronate, keeled, prominently 5-nerved, minutely scabrid on the surface and nerves and sharply scabrid along the keel, callus and lower part of keel with long crisped woolly hairs. Palea slightly shorter than the glume, linear-oblong, scabrid on the keels. Anthers long.
Kermadec Islands: Abundant on Sunday and Macaulay Islands, chiefly near the sea, T.F.C., Miss Shakespear!
Distinguished by the branching habit, distichously spreading leaves, short contracted panicle, and narrow acuminate flowering glumes, which are sharply scabrid on the keel, and scaberulous on the surfaces and veins.
