254 Transactions. — Botany. 



green, brown towards base ; spurious ligula bi-lunate or kidney-form. 

 Spikelet 6 inches long, slender, upper portion 1^— If inches male, bracts 

 (often 3) leaf-like, long, outer 12-16 inches long 1 line wide, very filiform 

 at tips, scabrid, crumpled towards top, fugacious ; utricles decussate, dis- 

 tant on rhachis about 1 line apart, squarrose, black, 2^- lines long, spindle- 

 shaped, truncate and striped at base, acuminate, shining ; bristle 3^ lines 

 long from tip of utricle, greenish ; hook long, light brown, thickened and 

 black at curve ; glume narrow, narrower than utricle, linear-ovate-acumin- 

 ate, 5-J lines long, obtuse, glabrous, shining, light brown with a thick 

 central nerve, tri-nerved at base, fugacious ; stigmas long, slender. 



Hab. Skirts of low woods near Norsewood, County of Waipawa ; 

 March, 1884: W.C. 



Obs. This plant wears a striking appearance when its fruit is ripe, 

 widely different to that of its ripening state ; for the light-coloured and 

 long glumes having fallen away, the black and distant utricles stand out 

 patent on the rhachis, which, in clear tranquil and undisturbed situations, 

 arrests the eye immediately from their extreme novelty. The fruits, how- 

 ever, fall off at a very slight touch, often clinging disagreeably by their 

 hooks to clothing, hair, etc. 



Genus 14. Carex, Linn. 

 1. Carex quadrangulata, sp. nov. 



Plant large, tufted, diffuse, dark green. Culms rather slender, 3 feet 

 6 inches long, drooping, smooth, glossy and finely striate, trigonous but 

 4-angled owing to the lower angle being double or channelled throughout, 

 and scaberulous on both edges. Leaves shorter than culms, 2 feet 6 inches 

 long, J inch wide, cbannelled, linear, acuminate, margins and upper- surface 

 finely scabrid, keeled, keel scaberulous. Spikelets few, under 1 inch long, 

 the lower 2 single, distantly spiked along the culm, the upper and terminal 

 one a short compound panicle, bearing the male spike at top, slender, 1 inch 

 long ; peduncles 3, l|-2 inches long, erect and nodding, filiform, com- 

 pressed, scabrid, with 2 small adpressed sheathing brown bracteoles ; the 2 

 lower bracts very long, 12-15 inches, foliaceous, sheathing, with a small 

 transverse scarious bracteole below aperture of sheath on the outside. 

 Glumes as long as the utricles, broadly ovate, bicuspidate, awned with a 

 stout central nerve, membranous at margins, light coloured minutely striped 

 with red. Utricles short, about 1 line long, broadly ovate, turgid above, 

 flattish beneath, bicuspid, scabrous on both margins near tip, glabrous, 

 shining, dark brown. Stigmas 3. 



Hab. Sides of water pools, open parts of the forest, Norsewood, County 

 of Waipawa ; 1884 : W.C. 



