57 



moreover from the material examined on this occasion it does not 

 appear that H. multicaulis can be maintained as specifically distinct, 

 we may consider that plant the tristigmatous representative of H. 

 palustris in the northern countries. The caryopsis of H. multicaulis 

 is often strongly triang'ular, as would generally be the case from the 

 development of three stigmata ; but this character, on which this 

 supposed species mainly rests, appears to be one of degree. Indeed 

 its validity has been questioned by many meritoi;ious observers. In 

 the Dukedom of Schleswig the author had repeated opportunities 

 of proving the characters derived from the bifid or trifid style of 

 Scirpus glaucus and S. lacustris to be falUble, and to trace tUe tran- 

 sitions between these two rushes. Heleocharis palustris, notwith- 

 standing its producing in E. Australia almost invariably a trifid style, 

 shows singularly enough usually the normal pyriform- or obovate- 

 lenticular caryopsis of H. palustris, but not the triangular form of 

 that of H. multicaulis, but the two edges of the fruit may be more 

 or less obtuse or acute. To collect the scattered synonymy and the 

 quotations of the literature referring to this almost cosmopolitan 

 plant, would occupy pages and is beyond the scope of this publication. 

 H. acuta, though not admitted into Dr. Hookers Tasmanian Flora, 

 will not likely prove different from our plant, as no allied plant has 

 been refound in Tasmania, to which the very brief phrase furnished 

 in R Brown's Prodromus could be applied. 



DEMOSCHffiNUS SPIRALIS. 



J. Hook. Flor. Nov. Zeel. i. 272 ; Isolepis spiralis, Ach.. Eiohard, Voy. de 

 I'Astrolabe, 105, t. 19 ; Anthophyllum Urvillei, Steudel, Synops. Plantar. 

 Glumacear. ii. 160. 



Sandy places on the sea-shore of Chatham-Island. 



The fruit-clasping scales are almost orbicular with truncate base. 

 The flat linear filaments are placed closely together on the convex 

 side of the caryopsis ; the latter is exactly plane-convex. 



Dr. Steudel by some oversight attributes to this plant a bifid 

 style and one-flowered spikelets. 



Carex paniculata. 



Linn. Spec. Plant. 1383; BentL. Handbook of the Brit. Flor. 559; C. para- 

 doxa, Willd. Act. Academ. Berolin. 1794,, 39, t. 1,'fig. 1 ; C. teretiuscula, 

 Goodenough in Transact. Linn. Soc. ii. 163, t. 19, fig. 3; Boott in Jos. 

 Hook. Flor. Hov. Zeel. i. 221; C. appressa, E. Brown, Prodr. 242; Kunze, 

 Supplem. zu Schkahr's Eiedgrsesern, tab. 11 ; J. Hook_. Flor. Antarctic, i. 



H 



