Carex. | CYPERAOCES, 815 
branches of the panicle rigid, erect, closely appressed to the 
rhachis, the lower usually remote and sometimes conspicuously so. 
Glumes almost equalling the utricles, broadly ovate, acute or 
acuminate, concave, membranous. brown with a narrow pale line 
down the centre; margins not silvery. Utricle stipitate, ovoid or 
triangular-ovoid, often subcordate at the base, plano-convex, con- 
spicuously many-nerved on both faces, contracted into a short 
2-toothed beak; margins incurved, conspicuously ciliate-denticu- 
late. Styles 2. Nut broadly ovoid, biconvex.—Boott, Ill. Car. 
i. 46, t. 121, 122; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 313. C. paniculata var. virgata, 
Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 427. C. collata, Boott in 
Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iii. (1844) 417 (name only). 
Norru anp SoutH Iszuanps: Abundant in swamps throughout. Sea- 
level to 3000 ft. November—January. 
Very close to C. appressa, but the culms are more slender and not so 
acutely triquetrous, the leaves are narrower, and the panicle much longer 
and narrower, and not so dense. 
11. C. secta, Boott in. Hook f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 281.—A very 
large species. Rhizomes matted, often forming trunk-like masses 
2-4 ft. high and much resembling the stem of a tree-fern. Culms 
2-4 ft., slender, inclined or drooping above, trigonous with the angles 
scabrid, grooved, leafy at the base. Leaves numerous, as long or 
longer than the culms, ;4-4in. broad, grooved, keeled below, flat 
above; margins scabrid. Spikelets very numerous, pale-brown, 
small, few-flowered, androgynous with the male flowers at the top, 
arranged in a much and laxly branched often decompound nodding 
panicle 1-24 ft. long; the primary divisions usually very long and 
slender, much branched, the spikelets often remote on the branches. 
Glumes almost equalling the utricles, broadly ovate, acuminate or 
cuspidate, thin and membranous, pale-brown with a paler line 
down the centre and scarious hyaline margins. Utricles rather 
smaller than those of C. virgata, shortly stipitate, broadly ovoid, 
turgid, plano-convex or unequally biconvex, polished and shining, 
uite smooth or very indistinctly nerved, contracted into a rather 
broad 2-toothed beak, the margins of which are ciliate-denticulate. 
Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, biconvex.—/Ill. Car. 1. 47, t. 128, 
124. C. virgata var. secta, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 813. C. pani- 
culata var. secta, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 428. 
Norts anp SoutH Isnranps: Abundant in swamps from the North Cape 
to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 2500 ft. November—January. 
Easily distinguished from C. virgata by the much larger and laxly branched 
often decompound nodding panicles, and by the smaller utricles, which are 
smooth and shining or very indistinctly nerved. The immense tussocks formed 
by the matted rootstocks are very conspicuous objects in swampy districts, 
and have had the local name of ‘‘ nigger-heads’’ applied to them. 
