790 CYPERACES. [ Lepidosperma. 
short and spike-like. Spikelets numerous, 2—4-flowered, the upper- 
most flower perfect and fruit-bearing, the remainder sterile. Glumes 
5-10, subdistichous, imbricate; outer 1-6 empty. Hypogynous 
bristles 6, short, ovate or lanceolate with a setiform tip. Stamens 
3. Style-branches 3. Nut ovoid or oblong, obtusely trigonous ; 
tip obtuse, indurated, smooth. 
Species 36. One of them is endemic in South China and Malacca, the 
remaining 35 are confined to Australia, with the exception of two which are 
found in New Zealand as well. 
Stems flat and thin. Panicle narrow, lax, 4-12in.long.. 1. L. laterale. 
Stems slender, terete. Spike simple, 1-3 in. long .. 2. L. filiforme. 
1. L. laterale, R. Br. Prodr. 234.—Stems densely tufted, flat or 
very slightly convex, with sharp almost cutting edges, smooth, 
firm, 2-4 ft. high, }4in. broad. Leaves 3-5, similar to the stems 
but shorter, equitant at the base. Panicle long and narrow, 
4-12in. long; branches not very closely placed, elongated, erect, 
simple or again branched, lowest bract with an erect lamina 14-4 in. 
long, upper bracts short. Spikelets sessile, red-brown, 4in. long, 
usually with 1 perfect flower and 1 sterile one below it. Giumes 
ovate, acuminate or almost awned, keeled, minutely puberulous on 
the back, the 3 outer empty. Hypogynous bristles 6, connate at 
the base, small, short, tipped with delicate fragile sete which 
are sometimes half as long as the nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 
3. Nut ovoid-oblong, obtusely trigonous, smooth when fully 
mature, tip tumid.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vi. 393. L. concayvum, 
Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 91, t. 1468; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 307 (not of 
R. br.). UL. longitudinalis, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1. 279 (not of 
Labill.). 
Nortrx Istanp : Auckland—Clay hills from the North Cape to the Upper 
Waikato, not uncommon. Sea-level to 1500 ft. January—February. 
Also in eastern Australia and Tasmania. 
2. L. filiforme, Labill. Pl. Nov. Holl. i. 17, t. 15.—Rhizome 
short, stout, woody, creeping. Stems numerous, densely tufted, 
slender but rigid, erect, terete, rush-like, 1-3 ft. high. Leaves re- 
duced to a rather long and closely appressed sheath, terminating 
-in a short and almost filiform erect lamina. Spike simple, ter- 
minal, 1-3 in. long; rhachis slender, straight or scarcely flexuose ; 
sheathing bracts narrow. Spikelets 1 to each bract, narrow-linear, 
terete or nearly so, $in. long, 2-flowered, the upper flower perfect, 
the lower sterile. Glumes 4-5, narrow-lanceolate, acute, the 2 or 
3 outer ones shorter and broader, empty. Stamens 3. Nut oblong, 
obtuse or minutely apiculate, obtusely trigonous with a thickened 
line down the angles. Hypogynous scales at the base of the nut - 
minute, whitish, subulate-lanceolate, acute, closely appressed.— 
Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 93 (in part); F. Muall. Fragm. ix. 27 ; 
Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 399. 
