Gahnia. | CYPERACES. 793 
Sourn Istanp: Nelson—Dun Mountain, 7. F’. C.; Aorere Valley and Nga- 
kawau, Kirk; Westport, Townson! Westland—Between Hokitika and Ross, 
Marsden, near Greymouth, Kirk ! Sea-level to 2500 ft. 
Distinguished from G. setifolia by the usually smaller size, erect rigid 
panicle, longer and more acuminate subequal glumes, and more obovoid nut. 
‘The erect compact panicle, subequal glumes, and small nut separate it from the 
following species. 
3. G. pauciflora, ZT. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. i. ed. 2 (1871) 
94.— Stems slender, sparingly leafy, 2-3 ft. high, rarely more. 
Leaves equalling the stems, narrow, with scabrid cutting edges 
and jong filiform points. Panicle long, lax but narrow, 14-3 ft. 
long; branches distant, slender; bracts long, leafy. Spikelets 
loosely scattered on the branches of the panicle, not crowded, 
sessile or shortly pedicelled, brownish - black, 41-+in. long, 2- 
flowered; lower flower male, upper hermaphrodite and fruit- 
bearing. Glumes usually 8; the 5 lower ones empiy, gradually 
increasing in size, ovate, acute or acuminate ; the 3 upper small at 
first, but enlarging in iruit, deeply concave, appressed to the nut, 
obtuse. Stamens 4-5 to each flower; filaments greatly elongated 
in fruit. Style-branches 3-4. Nut large, 4—+in. long, elliptic- 
ovoid, acute at both ends, smooth and shining, often grooved on 
the inner face, red-brown with a dark tip, transversely grooved 
within.—G. Hectori, Kirk on Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. (1877) 551. 
NortH AND SoutH IsLANDS: From the North Cape southwards to Marl- 
borough, Nelson, and Westland, plentiful. Sea-level to 30u0 ft. October— 
December. 
A well-marked species, at once recognised by the slender elongated panicle, 
with Jax distant branches; the numerous empty glumes, the lower of which 
are unusually small; and the large red-brown nut. 
4. G. xanthocarpa, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 306.— Stems 
numerous, stout, often as thick as the finger, densely tufted, leafy, 
5-12 it. high, forming huge clumps in forests. Leaves numerous, 
very long, $in. broad or more, involute, scabrid on the margins 
and veins, upper part produced into long filiform points. Panicle 
very large, 2-dft. long, drooping, excessively branched ; branches 
long, slender, pendulous, 9-18in. long or even more; bracts long, 
leafy. Spikelets innumerable, densely crowded, brown, 1-1+in. 
long, 2-flowered ; lower flower male, upper flower hermaphrodite 
and fruit-bearing. Glumes 6-7; the 3-4 outer empty, not very 
different in length, ovate, shortly acuminate ; the 3 upper smaller, 
deeply concavé, obtuse. Stamens usually 4 to each flower ; fila- 
ments lengthening much in fruit. Style-branches 3-4. Nut large, 
11 in. long, elliptic-oblong or -obovoid, acute at both ends, smooth 
and shining, sometimes indistinctly grooved, black when fully ripe, 
yellowish when immature, transversely grooved within.—Benth. 
Fil. Austral. vii. 418. G. ebenocarpa, Hook. f. ex Kirk in Trans. 
