Cheeseman. — Revision of the N.Z. Species of Carex. 429 



stems, narrow, ^ inch broad, erect, strict and wiry, concave in front, convex 

 behind, or plano-convex, grooved, margins smooth or slightly scabrid. In- 

 florescence nearly dioecious or altogether so ; spikelets pale, almost white, 

 few flowered, sessile, collected into a linear terminal spike |-1| inch long ; 

 those of the male plant with occasional female flowers or altogether uni- 

 sexual ; those of the female sometimes with a staminate flower at the top of 

 the spikelets. Bracts short. Glumes lanceolate, thin and membranous, 

 pale, acuminate or awned. Perigynia long and narrow lanceolate, plano- 

 convex, nerved, tapering into a very long bidentate serrate beak. Stigmas 2. 



South Island. — Upper Waitaki, Mackenzie Plains, Lakes Tekapo and 

 Pukaki, alt. 2,000-4,000 feet, T.F.C. ; Kough Ridge, alt. 3,000 feet ; Nevis 

 Valley, alt. 2,000 feet ; and other localities in Otago, D. Petrie ! Upper 

 Shotover, P. Goijen ! 



A most distinct species, whose only near ally appears to be the following. 

 I have given a full description of the plant, as Mr. Petrie does not allude to 

 the nearly dioecious inflorescence and some other curious points. 



12. C. kaloides, Petrie, Trans. N.Z. Inst., xiii., 332. 



South Island. — Apparently plentiful in mountain districts throughout. 

 Common in river valleys in the interior of Nelson, T.F.C. ; slopes of Mount 

 Torlesse, Broken Kiver, Upper Waimakariri, Mackenzie Plains, Lakes 

 Tekapo and Pukaki, and other localities in Canterbury, T.F.C; interior of 

 Otago, plentiful, D. Petrie ! Altitudmal range 800-3,500 feet. 



Allied to C. viridis, but easily separated by its larger size, less strict 

 habit; broader, flatter, and more grassy leaves, and larger often loosely 

 branched panicles. The Nelson specimens as a rule have much larger, 

 more compound, and more numerously flowered panicles than those from 

 Canterbury and Otago, but I find no other difference. I have never seen 

 specimens wholly unisexual, as in C. viridis, but the male flowers vary 

 greatly in number ; in some cases the panicles being almost entirely pistil- 

 late, while in others a considerable portion of the upper spikelets are male. 



C. kaloides and C. viridis are sharply marked off by their narrow lanceo- 

 late and long-beaked plano-convex perigynia ; none of the other New Zea- 

 land species even approaching them in this respect. Both are peculiar 

 to the colony. 



Section III. — Spikelets separate, usually stalked, unisexual ; the male 

 spikelets constantly uppermost, rarely mixed with female flowers ; the 

 lower spikelets all female, or frequently with a few male flowers at the base 

 or apex. 



13. C. vulgaris, Fries, var. gaudiehaudiana, Boott,Ill. Car., iv., 169, 

 t. 567 ; Benth. Fl. Austr., vii., 442 ; F. Muell. Fragm., viii., 257. C. gau- 

 diehaudiana, Kunth, Enum., ii., 417 ; Hook.fil. FL Tasm., ii., 99, t. 151, a. ; 

 Handbk, N.Z, Flora, 313, 



