Gaimardia. | CENTROLEPIDE. 759 
into a free ligule. Scape terminai, rigid, erect, longer than the 
leaves. Floral bracts 2 or 3, alternate, convolute, appressed, 
obtuse, each 1-flowered or the uppermost empty. Hyaline scales 
absent. Stamens 2. Ovary of 2 connate collateral carpels ; 
style 1 to each carpel, filiform. Fruiting carpels 2, or 1 by abor- 
tion.— Handb. N.Z. Fl. 297. 
Sourn IsLanp, Stewart IsnanD: Not uncommon in subalpine bogs 
throughout. 2500-4500 ft. December—March. 
OrpER XC. RESTIACE{. 
Sedge-like or rush-like perennial herbs, either tufted or with a 
creeping rhizome usually covered with imbricated scales. Stems 
rigid, simple or branched, erect or flexuose. Leaves either few, 
radical, linear and sedge-like, or more often nearly or altogether re- 
duced to convolute scales sheathing the stem; sheaths usually spht 
to the base. Flowers dicecious, very rarely hermaphrodite, in spikes 
or racemes or panicles, each flower furnished at the base with a 
dry and rigid bract (glume) and sometimes 2 bracteoles. Perianth 
regular, of 6, rarely more or less, rigid or scarious erect segments. 
Male flowers: Stamens 3; filaments free or rarely connate into a 
column; anthers oblong, usually 1-celled. Rudimentary ovary 
occasionally present. Female flowers: Staminodia present or ab- 
sent. Ovary 1-3-celled; styles as many as the cells, free or connate 
at the base, stigmatic on the inner side; ovules solitary in each 
cell, pendulous, orthotropous. Fruit either a 1-3-celled capsule 
with longitudinal dehiscence or an indehiscent nut. Seeds 1 in 
each cell, pendulous, albumen farinaceous; embryo small, remote 
from the hilum. 
A small order of about 20 genera and 230 species, almost confined to South 
Africa and Australia, the only species found outside these countries being the 
three occurring in New Zealand, one in Chili, and one in Cochin-China. The 
species have no important uses or properties. 
Spikelets many-flowered, panicled. Ovary 3-celled. Fruit 
3-angled, dehiscing at the angles Be Be .. i. Lepyropia. 
Spikelets many-flowered, panicled. Ovary 1-celled. Nut 
3-angled, indehiscent .. 2, LEPTocARPUS. 
Spikelets few-flowered, female ‘L-flowered. Ov ary 1-celled. 
Nut ovoid, terete, smooth .. -. 93. HYPOoLmNa. 
1. LEPYRODIA, R. Br. 
Rhizome stout, creeping, scaly. Stems erect, simple or branched, 
terete. Leaves reduced to persistent or rarely deciduous sheathing 
scales. Flowers dicecious or monececious, rarely hermaphrodite, in 
rather broad or narrow panicles, sometimes almost spicate, the in- 
florescence not conspicuously different in the two sexes. Glumes 
lanceolate, scarcely imbricate; bracteoles 2 at the base of each 
flower. Male flowers: Perianth-segments 6, glume-like or thin 
