94 FLORA OF TASMANIA. | Cyperacee. 
subulatis, strictis, ensiformibus, basi dilatatis, vaginantibus equitantibusve; scapis axillaribus, brevibus, 
compressis, l-floris, post anthesin elongatis, rigidis, strictis. 
This remarkable genus is confined to the Andes, mountains of Fuegia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Victoria, 
where its species form broad, dense, hard, cushion-like, bright-green patches, in bleak, open places.—Culms densely 
tufted, covered with the subulate leaves, which are equitant and distichous, or imbricating ; sheaths shining. Flowers 
minute, solitary, pedicelled, the pedicel elongating after flowering, and forming a rigid, persistent scape. Scales or 
involucral leaves two, opposite, enclosing the flower, deciduous. Perianth of six ovate-lanceolate, cuspidate, coria- 
ceous, minute scales, in two series, within which the three stamens rise. Style simple at the base, deciduous, with 
three stigmata. Nut crustaceous, obovate, with a broad, depressed, areolar apex, longer than the perianth-scales, 
which are appressed to it, and do not fall away with it, but remain on the pedicel. (Name from opos, a mountain, 
and BoXos, a ball.) 
l. Oreobolus Pumilio (Br. Prodr. 237); foliis distichis, nuce trigona.—Kunth, En. i. 367. O. 
pectinatus, Nob. in Fl. Ant. i. 87.1.49; Fl. N. Zeal.i. 275. O. distichus, F. Muell. in Hook. Lond. 
Journ. Bot. viii. 385. (Gunn, 1435.) 
: Has. Summits of all the mountains, alt. 3-5000 feet.— (Fl. J an.) (v. v.) 
DisrarB. Mount Hotham, Victoria, Mueller; mountains of New Zealand and Lord Auckland’s 
group. 
The leaves of the Tasmanian specimens are often shorter and blunter than the New Zealand and Victoria ones, 
but I find that they vary greatly, and I can discover no other difference. 
Gen. XII. CLADIUM, Br. 
Spicule parve, in paniculas spicasve divisas terminales dispositee, 1-3-floree, monosperme ` squamis 
undique imbricatis, plerisque vacuis. Syuamule hypogyn 0. Filamenta post anthesin non elongata. 
Nus trigona, apice bulboso-incrassata, rarius simplici.— Radix perennis; culmis erectis, simplicibus, foliisque 
teretibus angulatis v. ancipitibus ; panicula basi ramisque basi bracteatis ; bracteis interdum spathaceis. 
Tt is impossible to define what the limits of this genus should be, except by examining a vast number of Aus- 
tralian species, and Cyperacee of many countries, which are more or less allied to these, and which have on various 
grounds been removed from it, and referred to Chapelliera, Baumea, Vincentia, and other genera. The Tasmanian 
and all of the Australian species which I have examined, and which have been referred by Brown to Cladium, may 
be retained in that genus, for they form a sufficiently natural assemblage, most nearly allied to Lepidosperma, but 
differing in habit, in never having the sharp-edged cutting leaves and culms of that genus, in wanting the hypo- 
gynous scales attached to the base of the nut, and in having a thickened top to the nut in most species. As in 
Lepidosperma, the culms and leaves are flat and two-edged, or terete, or angled, but whereas the majority of Lepi- 
dosperme are two-edged, this is an exceptional character in Cladium. From Gahnia, Cladium is distinguished by 
its less rigid habit, and the filaments not being persistent; but C. Filum has the habit of Gahnia, and O. sche- 
noides has that of Lepidosperma linearis. About twenty Australian plants are known to me that I should refer 
to Cladium. (Name from xXaôos, a branch ; from the branched inflorescence of the European species.) 
a. Culms and leaves terete or angled. 
l. Cladium glomeratum (Br. Prodr. 237); culmis teretibus, foliis elongatis tereti-subulatis cau- 
linis abbreviatis, panicula coarctata, spiculis 2-3-floris fasciculatis congestisve, fasciculis paniculatis, brac- 
teis spathaceis, squamis ovatis acuminatis ciliolatis dorso scaberulis, nuce ovato-trigona levi.—Kunth, En. 
i. 304; Fl. N. Zeal. i. 275. Cladium dubium, Nees, Sieb. Agrost. n. 5. (Gunn, 1013, 1398.) 
Has. Abundant in clayey, sandy, and moist places generally.— (Fl. Dec.) (v. v.) - 
