THE TASMANIAN FLORA. 



237 



Kingston, Longlcy, Huon, Circular Head, George Town, and manj other 

 localities, on wet heaths ; also in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and 

 South Australia. 



6. R. TETRAPHTLLUS, Lob. Stems erect, from a thickened rootstock, 2-8 feet 

 high. Sheathing bracts closely appressed, about 1 inch long. Lower bracts 

 empty ; middle bracts bearing numerous long, much-divided, filiform, barren 

 branches, gradually passing into the branches of the inflorescence. Spikelets 

 numerous, in a narrow, loose, interrupted, compound panicle. Males nearly 

 globose, about 2 lines diameter ; glumes ovate, with a slender spreading point ; 

 perianth under 1 line long, segments 6 (the side pair folded). Female spikelets 

 broadly oblong, 3-6 lines long ; glumes very broad, with a slender spreading 

 point ; perianth about 1 line long, flat, segments 4 (the side ones folded). 

 Ovary 2-celled. 



Huon, Florentine Valley, West Coast, and numerous marshy localities ; also 

 in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. 



14. 

 15. 



Uncinia. 

 Carex. 



Order 1jKKX.Y111.—CYPERACE^. 



Flowers numerous to solitary, in spikelets, hermaphrodite or unisexual, each 

 enclosed in a glume, and often a few empty glumes at the base of the spikelet. 

 Perianth reduced to variously-shaped bristles or scales, termed hypogynous 

 scales, or absent. Stamens generally 3, but varying from 1-6. Ovary 1-oelled, 

 with 1 ei'ect ovule. Style filiform, deeply 2 or 3-lobed. Fiuit a nut. Leafless 

 or leafy, the sheaths of the stem-leaves or sheathing bracts usually combined 

 into a tube, rarely open and with a ligule at the orifice. 



A" very large order, found throughout the world. 



i. Flowers strictly unisexual, pistil in a flask- 

 shaped utricle ... ... ... ... ... ii. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or mostly so, without an 

 utricular development ... 

 ii. Fruit armed with a protruding hooked spine ... 



Fruit a simple flask-shaped utricle 

 iii. Spikelets very numerous, in a rather dense to 

 very loose, much branched, terminal 

 inflorescence, surrounded by an involucre of 

 leaf -like bracts ... 

 Inflorescence not so constructed ... 

 iv. Fertile flowers many in the spikelet. 



Fertile flowers seldom more than one .. 

 V. Glumes roughly in two opposite rows .. 

 Glumes imbricate all round the rhachis.. 

 vi. Spikelet terminal and continuous with the stem 

 Spikelets very numerous, in a dense, lateral, 



spherical head ... 

 Spikelets few or solitary, and, if numerous, in a 



dense, spherical, terminal head 

 Spikelets numerous, in a dense, 



terminal head ... 

 Spikelets otherwise disposed 

 Hypogynous scales long and feathery 

 Scales smaller than the nut or none 

 Leaves similar to the scapes 

 Leaves dissimilar to the scapes ... 

 No hypogynous bristles at base of nut ... ... xi. 



Hypogynous bristles present ... ... ... xii. 



1. Cyperus. 



Vll. 



spherical, 



