ON SOME NEW ZEALAND CARICES, 415 
memoir is greatly enhanced by the beautifully executed steel 
engravings. 
Carex tenax (Berggren).—A reddish species ; culms densely 
tufted, graceful, robust; leaves nearly equalling the culm, or 
larger, tenacious, semiterete, scabrid at the margin ; bracts ex- 
ceeding the culm, the lower sheathed, the upper without sheaths ; 
spikelets 5-6, oblong, the lowermost remote, the others approxi- 
mate, the terminal one cylindrical male, the others female but 
male at the very base; glumes obovate, with long hispid awn, 
pale, membranous, with lacerated margin; utricles elliptical, 
plano-convex, beaked, bifid, cilio-serrate at the beak and top, 
purple-spotted, nerveless, smooth, covered by the glume ; stigmas 
two. 
Habitat: Dry grassy places on the mountains by the Wai- 
makariri, and littoral plains at the Bluff. 
This species differs from C. vaouliz (Boott) in the very 
tenacious semi-terete leaves, the terminal spikelet being wholly 
male, and the utricles smooth and nerveless. 
Carex dipsacea (Bergegren).—A pale green species; culms 
smooth, covered at the base by rigid scale-like leaves; leaves 
keeled, longer than the culm, scabrid at the margin; spikelets 
5-7, uppermost male, others female, the two uppermost sessile, 
the lower with peduncles rising above the sheath, the lowermost 
remote ; glumes shorter than the utricle, rounded, obtuse when 
the nerve dies out, or apiculate when it is produced; utricles 
divaricating when ripe, elliptical, biconvex, very shortly beaked, 
finely serrated at the upper margin, nerveless, smooth; stigmas 
two. 
Habitat: The mountains of New Zealand at Tokano and 
Omatangi in the N. Island, and the mountains of the S. Island, 
It is distinguished from C. /ucida (Boott) by the spikelets 
being obtuse and approximate (with exception of the lowermost), 
and the glumes rounded, gently waved at the margin, and 
shorter than the very short beaked smooth divaricating utricle. 
Carex comans (Berggren).—A_ straw-coloured species, tufted, 
with numerous sterile fascicles of leaves; culms filiform ; leaves 
longer than the culm, channelled, striate, filiform, slightly scabrid 
at the margin, plano-convex towards the base; spikelets 5-6, 
uppermost male, the rest female with long bracts ; the two upper 
sessile, oval, without sheaths, the rest oblong club-shaped on 
peduncles invested by sheaths; glumes membranous, ovate, 
hispido-cuspidate, bifid at the apex ; utricles lanceolate, plano- 
convex, finely serrated at the top, bifid, purple; stigmas three. 
Habitat : On dry sandy coasts near Hokianga, 
The species differs from C. testacea (Solander) in its remote 
spikelets, the lower sheathing and peduncled, its narrower 
utricle, and three stigmas. 
Carex pulchella (Berggren).—A reddish, tufted species ; culms 
setaceous, flaccid ; leaves longer than the culm, keeled, deeply 
grooved, filiform, scabrid at the margin, plano-triquetrous towards 
he base ; spikelets 4-5, the uppermost (rarely the two uppermost) 
