Centrolepis. | CENTROLEPIDEA. TOT 
short spreading hairs. Scapes radical, slender, hispid like the 
leaves. Floral bracts 2, close together, ovate, awned at the tip, 
concave, spreading, hispid with long hairs. Flowers from 3 to 8 
within each bract, each flower with 3 hyaline scales, the scales un- 
equal in length, the largest one usually as long as the bract, the 
others shorter. Stamen 1, exserted. Carpels from 3 to 8 in each 
flower, superposed and connate in 2 rows; styles as many as the 
carpels, free almost to the base.— Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 207 ; Kirk 
in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiii. (1891) 442. 
Sour Isutanp.—Otago—Bluff Hill, Kirk! H. J. Matthews ! December-— 
January. 
A common Australian and Tasmanian plant. 
9. C. minima, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1891) 441.—A 
minute glabrous densely tufted plant, forming flat moss-like patches. 
Stems very short, }-$in. high. Leaves equalling or rather shorter 
than the scape, distichous, linear-subulate, dilated into broad equi- 
tant membranous sheaths at the base. Scape short, stout. Floral 
bracts 2, opposite, ovate, erect, the outer one shortly awned. 
Flowers 1 to each bract, one of them with a stamen, the other 
usually without, filament very long. MUyaline scales wanting. 
Carpels from 2 to 5 to each flower, connate in 2 rows; styles as 
many as the carpels, connate at the base. 
Sourn Istanp: Westland—Shores of Lake Brunner, Kirk! Otago—Lake 
Te Anau, Petrie ! January—March, 
Very closely allied to C. pallida, but a smaller stiffer plant, with more 
numerous carpels to the flowers. 
3. C. pallida, Cheesem.—Forming compact pale-green cushbion- 
shaped masses. Stems short, densely packed, 4-14 in. high, leafy 
throughout. Leaves closely imbricate, distichous, }-4in. long; 
sheath half the length of the leaf or more, white and transparent, 
membranous, glabrous; lamina laterally compressed, ensiform- 
lanceolate or subulate, acute. Scape terminal, usually shorter than 
the leaves. Floral bracts 2, close together, unequal, the lower one 
the largest. Flowers 2, the upper one always with a stamen, the 
lower one frequently without, filament very long, the anther far 
exserted. Ovary of 1-3 (rarely 4) superimposed and connate car- 
pels; styles as many as the carpels, connate at the base.—Gai- 
mardia pallida, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 86. Alepvrum pallidum, 
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 268, t. 62c; Handb. N.Z. Fi. 296. 
NortH Istanp: Ruahine Mountains, Colenso, SourH IsLanp: Otago— 
Maungatua, Mount Kyeburn, Clinton Valley, Blue Mountains, Petrie! 
Campbell Island, Sir J. D. Hooker, Kirk ! December—March. 
Originally described as a Gaimardia, then transferred to Alepyrum, and 
replaced in Gaimardia by Bentham in the ‘‘Genera Plantarum.’’ But the 
structure of the flowers is not that of a true Gaimardia, and its nearest allies. 
are undoubtedly C. minima and C. viridis. 
