480 Transactions. — Botany. 



North Island. — Near Auckland ; Valley of the Thames ; etc. : T.F.C. 

 Probably not uncommon in the high interior country. 



South Island. — Common in moist places in mountain districts, rarer in 

 the lowlands. Nelson — Mount Arthur plateau, ascending to 4,500 feet; 

 Eed Hills; Kaglan Range; Wairau Gorge, etc.: T.F.C. Canterbury — 

 Upper Waimakariri ; Arthur's Pass ; Burke's Pass ; Mackenzie Plains ; 

 Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki ; Tasman River, etc. : T.F.C. Canterbury 

 Plains : T. Kirk. Otago — abundant in the interior : J. Buchanan ! D. 

 Petrie ! G. M. Thomson ! 



This and the two following species form a small group possessing rather 

 broad lenticular or flattened nerved perigynia, with remarkably short beaks. 

 C. vulgaris is easily separated from the other two by its much smaller size, 

 few, short and nearly sessile spikelets, and by the usually obtuse glumes. 

 Our plant is generally kept as a distinct variety, although some specimens 

 can hardly be distinguished from northern forms. In size it varies exceed- 

 ingly — from one or two inches to nearly two feet, — and the breadth of the 

 leaves, number and size of the spikelets, shape of the glumes, colour and 

 shape of the perigynia are all subject to considerable variation. The peri- 

 gynia are very frequently attacked by the fungus Ustilago urceolorum, and 

 ultimately converted into a dusty mass of spores. In some districts it is 

 difficult to find specimens free from the Ustilago. 



C. vulgaris has a wide geographical range. It is abundant in the colder 

 regions of Europe, Asia, and America, extending northwards as far as 

 Greenland and Behring Straits. In the southern hemisphere, outside 

 New Zealand, it is abundant in Australia and Tasmania, and is also found 

 in Chili. 



14. C. subdola, Boott, Trans. Linn. Socy., 20, 142 ; Hook. fit. Fl. Nov. 

 Zeal., i., 282 ; Handbook N.Z. Flora, 314. 



North Island. — Not uncommon in marshy places, from Mongonui south- 

 wards. 



South Island. — Nelson : Acheron Valley, Tr avers (Handbook) ; Upper 

 Takaka and Mount Arthur plateau, 2,500-4,000 feet, T.F.C. Canterbury : 

 various places in the Southern Alps, T. Kirk, T.F.C. Stewart Island : 

 T. Kirk. Altitudinal range from sea-level to nearly 4,000 feet. 



A tall, leafy, grassy species, very common in swamps in the northern 

 portion of the colony. It is allied to the European and Australian 

 C. acuta, L. ; but the oblong emarginate glumes, usually furnished with a 

 stout awn from the centre of the emargination, are very different to the 

 narrow, gradually tapering glumes of C. acuta. 



As in C. acuta, it often happens that in some of the lower flowers of the 

 female spikelets the rachilla is produced beyond the perigynium, sometimes 

 bearing one or two flowers with imperfect or fully developed perigynia, 



