280 FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. [ Cyperacee. 
Has. Northern Island; salt and fresh marshes, etc.; Bay of Islands, Banks and Solander, Sinclair, 
ete. 
A rigid, wiry, rush-like species, 1-2 feet high. Roots tufted and creeping, Culms smooth, cylindric, leafless. 
Sheaths with long tubes, oblique mouths, and short, curved, erect, laterally flattened, blunt leaflets. Panicle small, 
of a few short branches, with appressed, sessile, one-flowered spikelets in alternate pairs, surrounded by linear, rather 
blunt, striated spathes. Scales linear-oblong, hardly sharp.—This also is a Tasmanian and Australian plant; the 
rush-like habit, small panicle, and curious compressed little leaf of the sheaths distinguish it. 
Gen. XV. CAREX, Z. (Auctore F. Boott, M.D., F.L.S.) 
Flores diclines, amentacei; squamis unifloris, undique imbricatis. 7. d stamina 3. Fl. 9 in eodem 
v. diverso amento. Perianthium (perigynium) urceolare; ore contracto, seepe rostrato, integro v. bifido. 
Stigmata 2-3. Nue perianthio persistente inclusa. 
Tufted, grassy plants, with short or tall, generally triangular culms, and long harsh leaves, often cutting at 
the edges; seldom or never eaten by cattle, however similar to those of Grasses. The genus is one of the most 
extensive amongst plants, and the species are found in all parts of the world, but rarely in the low countries of the 
Tropics, and most abundantly in cold regions. — Flowers unisexual, solitary in the axils of imbricated scales, which 
are arranged in long or short spikes. Spikes male or female, or containing both male and female flowers, never 
irregularly mixed, the flowers of each sex being together at the top, base, or middle of each spike ; generally the 
upper spikes are males. Male flower of three stamens ; female of a nut with two or three stigmas enclosed in a 
flagon-shaped perianth with a narrow mouth, through which the stigmas project.—Dr. Boott has had the kindness to 
examine and furnish me with descriptions of all the southern Carices, and his accuracy, skill in their determination, 
and critical knowledge of the genus are unrivalled. He made the very curious remark that half the number of 
New Zealand species have male: flowers at the base of those spikes which are almost always, in the similar species of 
other parts of the globe, wholly female spikes, or female with male flowers at the top. Several New Zealand 
species, it will be seen, are common to New Zealand, Antarctic America, and Australia. Three are European and 
American, but are not found in Australia. (Name of unknown origin.) 
$ a. Spike simple, with male flowers towards the top. Stigmas generally three. 
1. Carex Pyrenaica, Wahl.; spica apice mascula oblonga ferruginea nuda v. bracteata, stigmatibus 
3 rarissime 2, perigyniis lanceolatis emarginatis ore albo membranaceo compressis enerviis stipitatis basi 
pallidis squama ovata acuta v. obtusa longioribus angustioribusque.—Boott, MÉS. 
Has. Northern Island; summit of the Ruahine mountains, Colenso. 
A small, grassy, tufted plant, 6 inches high, found in Europe and in the Rocky Mountains of North America. 
— Leaves twice as long as the culm, which bears a pale, red-brown, linear, oblong, shining spike 4-4 inch long. 
Stigmas three, rarely two. 
2. Carex acicularis, Boott; spica apice mascula subrotunda involucrata, stigmatibus 9, perigyniis 
lanceolatis 3-guetris acuminato rostratis ore obliquo demum fisso superne serratis stipitatis squama ovato- 
lanceolata acuta (inferioribus 2 vel 3 setaceo-foliaceis) multum brevioribus vel (ad apicem spice) eam 
eguantibus.—Boott, MSS. (Tas. LXIIT. C.) 
Has. Northern Island; top of the Ruahine mountains, Colenso. 
A small, wiry, rigid species, 4—6 inches high, with narrow channelled curving leaves, as long as or longer than 
the filiform culm. Spike broad, pale brown, 4 inch long and as broad, apparently lateral, from the lowest scale being 
produced much beyond it; sometimes an inch long; the two or three lower scales are usually foliaceous, length- 
ened and subulate. Male flowers four to six, imbricate, blunt; females about six. Perigynium 2 lines long, 3 line 
