CoLENSo. — Oil new Phanogamic Plants. 103 



the lower glumes and nuts falling off gives it the appearance 

 of being peduncled. Glumes few, broadly oblong, 1 line long, 

 concave, 1-nerved, nerve percurrent ; centre green, thickish ; 

 sides straight, entire, very membranous ; tips sub-acute, 

 thickened. Stamens 3, long, fiexuous. Nut minute, about 

 Jgin. diameter, orbicular, tipped with a small point, black, 

 finely papillose, slightly turgid, a little produced at base. 

 Style long ; stigmas 2, long, spreading, scaberulous. 



Hab. Sides of watercourses in low grounds, Hawke's 

 Bay; 1880: W. C. Also Mr. A. Hamilton; 1887. 



Obs. This little plant is closely allied to another small 

 New Zealand species, I. basilaris, Hook, f., but differs from 

 it in its still smaller size, solitary spikelet, broader and fewer 

 glumes with their mid-rib not " excurrent," orbicular black 

 nut, and 3 stamens. This species is also allied to I. acaidis, 

 F. Muell. {Scirpus humillimus, Benth. — " Fl. Austral.," vol. 

 vii., p. 324). 



Genus 14. Carex, Linn. 



1. C. picta, sp. nov. 



Eootstock hypogteous, creeping, very stout, woody, irre- 

 gular, knotty and branched, coarsely covered with large striate 

 brown imbricating scales. Leaves (and culms) pale-green, 

 very narrow, linear-acuminate, ascending, fiexuous, recurved, 

 rather closely fascicled in fours, the outer leaf the broadest, 

 truncate, sheathing lin. from base, 3iu.-6in. long, oV^i. wide 

 at base, flat, smooth, 2-nerved, striate, upper surface chan- 

 nelled, tips filiform, obtuse, their margins minutely and closely 

 (but not harshly) serrulate. Culms filiform, 3in.-4in. (rarely 

 5in.-6in.) long, sub-flexuous and ascending, drooping, sub- 

 trilateral, striate, edges rounded smooth. Spikelets 1-3 

 (usually 2, very rarely 3), narrow ovoid and broadly lanceolate, 

 rather slender, 3-4 lines long, shortly peduncled, dark-brown, 

 bi-bracteolate ; bracts erect, filiform, the lower fin.-liin. long, 

 the upper much shorter, one-third to one-fourth the length of 

 the lower, coloured brown at base, with their basal margins 

 much dilated ; tips minutely serrulate (sub lente) as in leaves. 

 Glumes large, very broad, orbicular-ovate, variegated, nerve 

 at centre stout, bright-green, sides dark purple-brown, mar- 

 gins white and very membranous, pellucid, delicately and 

 closely reticulate, extending beyond apex of nerve, tips rounded 

 and sometimes emarginate ; the lowest glume sub-aristate. 

 Male flowers below occupying more than half of spikelet ; 

 anthers exserted, linear, very narrow, rather long, bright- 

 yellow ; stamens white, fiexuous. Female flowers few ; style 

 very long twice the length of utricle, papillose-scabrid; stigmas 



2, very long, spreading, flexuous and curly, brown. Utricle 

 semi-terete, small, green (brown when quite ripe), broadly 



