Carex. | CYPERACE. 817 
beaked utricles, which are very sharply toothed above. Depauperated states of 
C. Kirkii resemble it in habit, but can be distinguished by the male flowers 
being at the top of the spikelets. 
14. C. Colensoi, Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 281, t. 68B.— 
Rhizome stout, woody, creeping, often much branched. Culms 
3-14in. high, very slender, almost filiform, weak, flexuous, tri- 
gonous, deeply grooved, leafy towards the base. Leaves usually 
shorter than the culms, but sometimes equalling or even exceeding 
them, narrow, 3-3, in. wide at the base, wiry; margins involute. 
Spikelets 2-4 or solitary, compacted into a terminal cluster, an- 
drogynous, broadly ovoid, turgid, dark-brown, }-2in. long; bracts 
1 or 2, unequal. Glumes broadly ovate, acute or the lower ones 
cuspidate, membranous; keel narrow, green; sides chestnut-brown ; 
margins broad, white and hyaline. Male flowers at the base of 
the spikelets, female flowers above. Utricle broadly ovate, plano- 
convex, not beaked, brown when ripe, smooth, indistinctly nerved ; 
margins serrate above. Styles 2. Nut elliptic-oblong, smooth.— 
Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fil. 8312; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. 
(1884) 425. C. picta, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1889) 103. 
NorrH AnD SoutH Isnanps: Not uncommon in hilly districts from the 
Upper Thames southwards. Sea-level to 4500 fc. November—Matrch. 
Also in south-eastern Australia, according to Mr. C. B. Clarke. 
15. C. echinata, Murr. Prodr. Stirp. Gotting. 76.—Culms more 
or less densely tufted, slender, trigonous, leafy at the base, 4-18 in. 
high. Leaves usually shorter than the culms, flat, grassy, grooved, 
gs-7; im. broad; margins scabrid. Spikelets 3-5, approximate in 
a terminal spike or a little remote, sessile, androgynous, green or 
pale-brown, about +in. long when mature; lowest bract short, 
subulate. Glumes ovate, acute or obtuse, membranous, pale-brown 
or green with a dark-green centre. Male flowers at the base of the 
spikelets, usually few; females more numerous. Utricle yellowish- 
green, much longer than its glume, spreading when ripe, giving the 
spikelet a squarrose appearance, ovate-lanceolate from a rounded 
and spongy base, plano-convex, many-nerved, narrowed above into 
a long bidentate beak; margins of the beak acute, minutely scabrid, 
or nearly smooth in most of the New Zealand specimens. Styles 
3. Nut lenticular.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 439; Cheesem. in 
Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 426. C. stellulata, Good. in Trans. 
Inn. Soc. ii. (1794) 144; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 281; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 312. C. debilis, Kirk im Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. (1878) 412 
(name only). 
NortH anpd SoutH JsLANps, Stewart IstaAnp: Marshy places from the 
Upper Thames Valley southwards, not uncommon. Sea-level to 4000 ft. 
November—March. 
Widely distributed in the temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere, 
but only known from Australia and New Zealand in the Southern. 
