814 CYPERACEA, [Carez. 
A common plant in the north temperate zone, but south of the equator 
only known from New Zealand. It is easily distinguished by the slender wiry 
habit, usually dense spike-like panicles, small spikelets male at the top, and 
ovoid turgid long-beaked utricles, smooth on one side, but ribbed on the other. 
9. C. appressa, R. Br. Prodr. 242.—Very stout, harsh and rigid. 
Rhizome short, creeping. Culms densely tufted, 1-3ft. high, 
stout, with the leaves often din. diam. at the base, rigid, grooved, 
acutely triquetrous with the angles sharply scabrid, leafy at the 
base. Leaves numerous, usually exceeding the culms, #-4in. 
broad, hard, rigid, acutely keeled, grooved; keel and margins 
scabrid with minute recurved denticles. Spikelets small, very 
numerous, few-flowered, androgynous, male flowers at the top, 
collected in a long and narrow spike-like panicle 3-7in. long, the 
primary branches erect and appressed to the rhachis ; bract obsolete. 
Glumes broadly ovate, acute, concave, membranous, brownish with 
a pale line down the centre; margins not silvery. Utricle shortly 
stipitate, broadly ovate, plano-convex, conspicuously many-nerved 
on each face, contracted into a short 2-toothed beak; margins 
broad, incurved, conspicuously ciliate-denticulate. Styles 2. Nut 
elliptic-ovoid, biconvex.— Raoul, Choiw, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Antaret. i. 
90; Fl. Tasm. i. 99; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 313; Boott, Ill. Car. i. 46, 
t. 119, 120. C. paniculata, F’. Muell. Veg. Chath. Is. 57; Benth. 
Fl. Austral. vii. 440 (not of Linn.). C. paniculata var. appressa, 
Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 427. 
SourH Isnanp: Otago — Near Dunedin, Petrie! G. M. Thomson! Catlin’s 
River, Petrie; Milford Sound, Hector. Stewart Isuanp: G. M. Thomson ! 
CuatHam Isuanps: H. H. Travers! (Panicle larger and laxer, with paler 
glumes—perhaps a different species, but specimens very immature.) AUCKLAND 
AND CAMPBELL ISLANDS, ANTIPODES Is~tAND: Abundant, Sir J. D. Hooker, 
Kirk ! November—February. 
In my revision of the New Zealand species I followed Baron Mueller and 
Mr. Bentham in reducing this and the two following species to the northern 
C. paniculata, to which all three are certainly very closely allied. C. appressa 
differs mainly in its greater size, harsher and more rigid habit, broader leaves, 
longer and more rigid panicle with the branches closely appressed, darker 
glumes without silvery margins, and by the more strongly nerved utricles, with 
broader margins. Although these differences are not important, they appear to 
be constant, and on the whole it is perhaps best to treat both C. appressa and 
the two following species as distinct from C. paniculata, although closely 
related to it. C.appressa is also found in temperate Australia and Tasmania. 
10. C. virgata, Sol. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 282.—Culms 
densely tufted, 1-3 ft. high, trigonous with the angles sharply 
scabrid, grooved, leafy at the base. Leaves numerous, much 
exceeding the culms, §-¢ in. broad, harsh and rigid, grooved, 
sharply keeled below, flat above ; margins scabrid with numerous 
sharp recurved denticles. Spikelets small, very numerous, few- 
flowered, androgynous with the male flowers at the top, arranged 
in a long and slender spike-like panicle 6-18 in. long; primary 
