762 RESTIACEZ. [Hypolena., 
thin, rigid, tip acute. Perianth-segments 6, very narrow-linear, 
acute. Stamens 3; anthers linear-oblong. Female spikelets 
solitary within the uppermost sheaths, 1-3-flowered. Perianth- 
segments 6 or 4, very small, the inner vot much longer than 
the ovary, broadly ovate, thin and hyaline. Style-branches 3. 
Nut broadly ovoid, terete, with a thick and swollen base.—Calo- 
rophus elongatus, Lab. Pl. Nov. Holl. ii. 78, t. 228 (in part) ; Hook. 
f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1. 267 ; Handb. N.Z. Fil. 297. 
Var. minor, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 297.—Much smaller and more 
slender, sometimes only a few inches high. Male spikelet solitary, 2-3- 
flowered ; female usually 1-flowered.—Calorophus minor, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 
i. 267. 
NortH AND SoutH IsLANDS, STEWART IsLAND, CHATHAM ISLANDS: The 
typical form not uncommon in lowland swamps in the North Island, from the 
North Cape southwards ; var. minor abundant in mountain districts throughout. 
Sea-level to 4500 ft. November—March. 
Also an abundant Australian and Tasmanian plant. The var. minor passes 
insensibly into the ordinary form. 
OrpEeR XCI. CYPERACEA. 
Grassy or rush-like herbs, usually perennial. Stems solid or 
rarely slightly hollow, often trigonous, sometimes compressed or 
terete. Leaves alternate, mostly radical, few or many, sometimes 
wanting or reduced to sheathing scales; sheaths closed, not split 
to the base. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, minute, solitary 
and sessile in the axils of small imbricated bracts (glumes), which 
are aggregated into few- or many-flowered (rarely 1-flowered) spike- 
lets. Spikelets either solitary and terminal, or arranged in spikes, 
racemes, panicles, or clusters. Glumes rigid or scarious or mem- 
branous, concave, distichous or imbricated all round, persistent or 
deciduous, 1 or 2 (rarely more) at the base of each spikelet empty. 
Perianth wanting or represented by few hypogynous bristles or 
scales. Stamens 1-3, rarely 4-6, hypogynous; filaments linear, 
flat, often elongating aiter flowering ; anthers usually exserted from 
the spikelet and pendulous, linear, basifixed, 2-celled. Ovary 
entire, 1-celled, in Carex and its allies enclosed in a peculiar flask- 
shaped organ called the utricle or perigvnium formed of 1 or 2 
modified bracteoles; style short or long, 2-3-cleft, divisions stig- 
matic on the inner side; ovule solitary, basal, erect, anatropous. 
Fruit a small indehiscent nut (in Carex enclosed in the utricle), 
lenticular or compressed or more often trigonous. Seed erect ; 
testa, membranous; albumen farinaceous; embryo minute, at the 
very base of the albumen. 
A very large order, found in all parts of the world, both temperate and tro- 
pical, and in almost all stations, but most abundant in marshes, or by the 
margins of lakes and rivers. It is closely allied to grasses, being chiefly dis- 
