90 FLORA OF TASMANIA. | Cyperacee. 
Has. Abundant in salt and brackish marshes, etc.— (Fl. Nov., Dec.) (v. v.) 
Disrris. Throughout Australia, New Zealand, and all temperate and tropical countries of both hemi- 
spheres. (Native of England.) h 
A larger and coarser plant than S. triqueter, with a trigonous culm, flat grassy leaves, and a corymbose, com- 
pound panicle of large, ovate spikelets, surrounded by several involucral leaves; this inflorescence is usually de- 
scribed as terminal, but one of the so-called involucral leaves is always erect, and is manifestly as much the con- 
tinuation of the culm as is that of 8. triqueter.—Spikelets pale-brown, 3-1 inch long. Scales very numerous, mem- 
branous or scarious, oblong, entire or bifid, with an often recurved arista. Nut large, pyriform, compressed, with 
a fusiform terminal mammilla, shining, punctulate. Sete unequal and variable. Anthers with a rough terminal 
mucro. Stigmas two or three. 
Gen. X. LEPIDOSPERMA, Labill. 
Spicule parve, in paniculas spicasve divisas terminales disposite, l—2-flore, monosperme ` squamis 
undique imbricatis, plerisque vacuis. Sguamule hypogyne 6, crasse, basi carinatee, nucis basi adherentes. 
Nux ventricosa, calva, obtusa; s/7/o deciduo, basi simplici.—Radix perennis, sepe lignosa ; culmis nudis, 
simplicibus, sepissime late ancipitibus, compressissimis, rarius teretibus angulatisve, rigidis, marginibus sca- 
berulis, sectantibus, basi foliis equitantibus cinctis; panicula basi vagina membranacea appressa cincta ; 
spiculis duris, fuscis. 
À very extensive genus, almost confined to extratropical Australia, a few species only being found in New 
Zealand and the Malay Islands. Brown describes nineteen species, and I find upwards of fifty in the Hookerian 
Herbarium, by far the greater number being natives of South-western Australia. The larger species form a con- 
siderable proportion of the so-called Cutting-Grasses of the forest and bush. Nees von Esenbeck, in ‘ Plant 
Preissianz, has referred some South-western Australian species to Brown's Tasmanian ones, trusting to the 
descriptions in the * Prodromus ;' but as Nees had no opportunity of comparing authentic specimens, and I find 
great differences between all the Tasmanian and South-western Australian species, I have refrained from quoting 
the ‘Plante Preissianee? I much doubt whether I am correct as to L. concava, lateralis, and squamata, of which 
the specimens in the British Museum are scarcely authentic, and hardly agree with the descriptions in the 
* Prodromus.’—Coarse, rigid, often tall, perennial Sedges, with simple, erect, harsh culms, which are most often 
flat, with two cutting edges, but in some species square or terete, bearing a few equitant leaves at the base, and 
terminated by a branched, compressed panicle of very insignificant spikelets. Spikelets sessile, short, enclosed in an 
aristate bract, of several imbricating scales, one- or two-flowered, the lower flower alone fertile. Scales charta- 
ceous, hard. Nut ventricose, coriaceous or osseous, surrounded at the base with six connate, persistent, coria- 
ceous, often thickened scales. Style with a simple base. (Name from Aeris, a scale, and arepa, a seed.) — 
a. Culms flat or very much compressed. 
l. Lepidosperma gladiata (Lab. Nov. Holl. i. 15. t. 12); 2—4-pedalis, culmo 2-2 poll. lato 
complanato, axi utrinque elevato intus solido, marginibus foliisque levibus, panicula coarctata, ramis com- 
positis, spiculis imbricatis, squamis ovatis acutis puberulis.— Br. Prodr. 234; Kunth, En. ii. 316. L. en- 
satum, Nees, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. 47. (Gunn, 984.) 
Has. Common on sand-hills near the sea, on the north coast, Gunn.— (Fl. Nov.) 
Disrris. Victoria, Robertson ; New South Wales, Brown. 
A tall, coarse, but not cutting species. Culm compressed, 2-3 feet high, 4-3 inch broad, with smooth mar- 
gins, and a thickened, convex axis, solid within. Panicle oblong, flattened, 3 inches long, much divided. Spike- 
lets puberulous, crowded.—I have seen no Western Australian specimens of this species. 
2. Lepidosperma elatior (Lab. Nov. Holl. i. 15. t. 11); 4-S-pedalis, culmo + poll. lato com- 
presso utringue convexiusculo intus solido marginibus foliisque scabris, panicula elongata effusa, ramis 
