57. gra:mixe.e. 



loo 



oG mm. (3 iu.) broad, keeled; spikelets cylindrical, males 

 8-20, sessile, in a dense terminal spike, with a short point-ed 

 bract at base, the terminal spikelet usually the longest; 

 below these are 1-2 distant, snbsessile female spikelets, 

 with a few male flowers at top, and 1 entirely female .spike- 

 let, about 4 cm. (li in.) long, much further down the stem 

 on a slender peduncle often twice as long as the spikelet, 

 all the female spikelets subtended by leafy bracts longer 

 than the inflorescence, and not dilated at base; glumes 

 reddish-brown, keeled and awned, male oblong-truncate, 

 female oval ; stamens and 

 stigmas 3; utricle corky in tex- 

 ture, 4 mm. long, ovoid striate. 

 with a conspicuous bifid beak 

 exceeding the glume; akenc 

 triangular. 



Grange Road and Reedbeds. 

 Sept.-Nov. — It is difficult to .say 

 whether this plant should he 

 classed as native or alien to 

 South Aufstralia. It Avas de- 

 scribed ori-ginally by Dr. Fran- 

 cis Boott, an English authority 

 on CareXy from specimens ob- 

 tained at Woolnorth, Tasmania, 

 bv R. C. Gunn. who collected in 

 tiie island from 1832 to 1850. 

 and published from Boott's ^ISS. 

 in J. D. Hooker's Flora Tas- 

 manice, ii. 101. The .specimens 

 appear to have lacked ripe fruits 

 (FI. Aiist. vii. 447). Since then 

 the plant has not been found in 

 its original home, and L. Rod- 



Avay, in his Tasmaiiian Flora, published in 1903, says, aft-er 

 describing it: — "Inserted from record only. Doubtful." 

 It does not appear to have been recorded for South Aus- 

 tralia until a patch of it was discovered on the Grange 

 Road in 190o. Near C. pumila, Tliunb., but differs in the 

 number of male spikelets. 



Family .57.— GRAMINE/E. 



Perianth reduced to 2 (rarely 3) minute, delicate 

 scales, termed Jodicules, at the base of the ovary and 

 stamens. The perianth, as a protector, is replacea by 2 

 membranous bracteoles, the lower of which is called the 

 fioin'ring ijliime, and encloses the upper, called the palea ; 

 within the latter is the real flower, composed of the lodi- 

 cules, pistil, and stamens. The term "flower" is, however, 

 understood to include the flowering glume and palea. 

 Below these, and enclosing them more or less, are 2 (rarely 



Carex 



Bichenoviana. 



