758 CENTROLEPIDEZ. | Centrolepis. 
4. CO. viridis, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiii. (1891) 441.— 
Forming soft green cushions in subalpine bogs sometimes several 
feet in diam. and 1—-2in. thick or more. Stems very densely com- 
pacted, erect, branched, leafy throughout. Leaves numerous, erect, 
imbricating, with broad scarious sheathing bases, $-4in. long, 
linear-subulate, channelled in front or terete, tip obtuse or acute, 
sheaths and sometimes the lower part of the lamina more or less 
clothed with soft white hairs. Scape terminal, usually exceeding 
the leaves. Floral bracts 2, alternate but close together, jointed at 
the base, the lower one with an obtuse often hooked point. Flowers 
1 or more rarely 2 to each bract, each flower with a hyaline scale 
almost as long as the bract. Stamen 1, sometimes deficient in one 
of the flowers; filament very long. Carpel usually solitary but 
sometimes 2 connate in the lower flower; style 1 to each carpel, 
long, filiform.—C. monogyna, Kirk in Journ. Linn. Soc. xix. 286 
(not of Benth.). Gaimardia ciliata, Hook. f. Fl. Antaret. i. 85; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. 295. 
NortH Isntanp: Base of Ruapehu, Petrie! Sour IsLaAND, STEWART 
IsLAND, AUCKLAND IsLaNDSs : Common in subalpine bogs throughout. Usually 
from 2000 to 5000ft., but descends to sea-level in Stewart Island. Decem- 
ber—March. 
This appears to be a much larger plant than the Tasmanian C. monogyna, 
to which, however, it is certainly very closely allied. Neither it nor the two 
preceding species fit at all well into Centrolepis, from which they differ in the 
perennial densely pulvinate habit, the shape of the leaves, the flowers seldom 
more than one in each floral bract, and in the cells of the ovary (or carpels) 
being frequently reduced to one. Hieronymus, in his classification of the order 
given in Engler’s Pflanzenfamilien, keeps up the genus Alepyrum for their re- 
ception, and probably that is the correct view to take. 
3. GAIMARDIA, Gaud. 
Small densely tufted perennial herbs; stems much _ branched, 
leafy throughout. Leaves numerous, densely imbricated, linear or 
setaceous. Scape terminal. Floral bracts 2 or 3, when 3 the upper 
one usually empty. Flowers 1 to each bract, sessile or stipitate. 
Stamens 2; filaments filiform ; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary 2- or 
rarely 8-celled; the cells (or carpels) collateral, connate; styles 
the same number as the carpels, long, filiform. Fruiting carpels 
2, or 1 by abortion. 
A small genus of 2 or 3 species, found in antarctic South America, New 
Zealand, and Tasmania. 
1. G. setacea, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 267.—Perennial, densely 
tufted and compacted, forming broad moss-like patches sometimes 
i-3ft. across. Stems very numerous, branched, erect, leafy 
throughout, 1-3in. high. Leaves numerous, erect, densely im- 
bricate, +-2in. long, linear-setaceous with acicular tips; sheaths 
broad, membranous, quite glabrous, entire, produced at the tip 
