240 THE TASMANIAN FLORA. 



7. S. NiTENS, Hooli. Stems slender, simple, and erect, singly. emitted from a 

 creeping rhizome, usually 2-6 inches high, but much exceeding these limits. 

 Leaves few, at the base of the stem, short, filiform. Spikelets solitary or few 

 together, in a terminal cluster, subtended by a very short or elongated erect 

 bract, 1-2 lines long, the glumes not as regularly distichous as in most species, 



2 or S-flowered, with 2 or 3 outer empty glumes at the base. Hypogynous 

 bristles slender, 6, with a few long woolly hairs towards their base. Stamens 3. 

 Nut 3-angled, smooth. ChcBtospora nitens, R. Br. 



Common in wet heaths, principally near the sea. Along the coast of extra- 

 tropical Australia ; also in New Zealand. 



A form of this variable plant is responsible for the Tasmanian record of 

 S. tepperi. 



3. ELYNANTHUS. 



Spikelets 1 or 2-flowered. Glumes distichous, empty ones below and above 

 the flowering glumes. Rhachis straight. Hypogynous bristles none. Stamens 



3 or more Style slender, with a thick base, persistent to and often as large as 

 the ovary, at least in the fruit. 



A small genus, with the habit and distichous glumes of Schoenus, but without 

 its floxuose rhachis, and with a nut approaching Caustis. 



E. CAPlLLACEUS, Benth. Stems numerous, on a creeping rhizome, forming 

 rather dense tufts, filiform, mostly 12-18 inches high, simple, leafless, beyond a 

 few basal sheaths. Spikelets few, in a terminal panicle, usually 2-4, about 2 lines 

 long, and very narrow. Stamens 3. Nut white, globose, 3-ribbed, crowned by 

 the shrivelled pubescent style-base quite as long as itself. Chcetospora capillacea, 

 Hook. ; Sc/ioenus capillaris, E. v. M. 



Longley, Huon, Southport, Zeehan, and many south and west districts, in wet 

 heaths ; also in Victoria and South Australia. 



4. MBSOMEL^NA. 



Spikelets with 1 terminal perfect and often a lower male flower. Glumes 

 distichous, 3 or 4 outer empty ones at the base. Hypogynous scales 3, flat. 

 Stamens 3. Style thickened at the base, but deciduous, or only remaining on 

 young fruit. Spikelets gathered into a dense, terminal, spherical head, with few 

 broad bracts at the base, and interspersed. 



A small genus, confined to Australian distribution. 



M. SPHJJEOCEPHALA, Benth. Densely tufted. Stems slender, simple, terete 

 or slightly flattened, about 3 or 4 feet long. Leaves few, basal, flattened, 

 or irregularly 3-sided, about as long as or shorter than the stems and less rigid. 

 Heads about f inch in diameter, very dense. Bracts broad and obtuse, but 

 those below the head often with laminse \ inch long. Spikelets 2-3 lines long. 

 Glumes obtuse. Style-base more persistent than in most of the genus. 

 Gymnoschoenvs spharocep /talus, Hook. ; ISchosnuf; sphtsrocephalus, E. v. M. 



Common on wet heaths ; also in New South Wales and Victoria. 



5. CARPHA. 



Spikelets with 1 terminal flower. Glumes distichous, a few outer empty ones. 

 Hypogynous bristles 6, much larger than the nut, slender, copiously plumose. 

 Stamens 3. Style slender, the base somewhat thickened, continuous with the 

 ovary, persistent. Nut oblong, 3-angled. 



A genus of few species, widely dispersed in the cooler temperate parts of the 

 Southern Hemisphere. 



C. ALPINA, R. Br. A small plant, of tufted habit. Stems sub-erect, simple, 

 6-12 inches high. Leaves basal, grass-like, mostly shorter than the stems. 



