Carex?\ 
XI. CYPERACEAE. 
317 
Very near C. Neesiana, but spikelets much shorter and stouter, leaves broader, and glumes 
2-fid. 
22. C. Lambertiana, Boott ; — FL N. Z. i. 284. Very similar in 
habit and characters to C. dissita, but larger, stouter, 2 ft. high, with coarser 
leaves } in. diam., longer spikelets 1-ly in. long, and always solitary male 
spikelets. — Boott, 111. Carex, t. 177. 
Northern Island : probably common, Totara-nui, Banks ancl Solander\ Waitaki and 
Great Barrier Island, and Auckland, Sinclair ; Bay of Islands, •/. D. H. This appears to 
me a large form of C. dissita. I find no difference in the 2-cuspidale tip of the utricle of 
the two. 
23. C. vacillans, Solander ; — FL N. Z. i. 285. Culms very slender, 
1 ft. high, scabrid, leafy. Leaves longer or shorter than the culms, rather 
rigid, v—j in. broad, flat, striate, nearly smooth. Spikelets 5-9, approximate 
or distant, long peduncled, drooping, 1-3 in. long, cylindric, bright yellow- 
brown, uppermost 1-3 male, the rest male at the base only, lower lax- 
flowered at the base ; bracts long and leafy. Glume ovate-subulate or lan- 
ceolate or almost linear-oblong, entire, shortly awned, pale red-brown. Utricle 
longer than the glume, fusiform, strongly nerved ; beak long, 2-cuspidate. 
Stigmas 3. 
Northern Island : common in moist woods, Banks and Solander , etc., Sinclair, Colenso. 
This again is very closely allied to the preceding two, but has the entire glumes of C. 
Neesiana, longer spikelets and peduncles, and much longer, narrower, strongly nerved 
utricles. 
I have another, apparently very distinct species of Carex , collected near Lake Okau by 
Haast along watercourses, but in too immature a state for description. Leaves very coria- 
ceous, flat, 10-12 in. long, i in. broad. Male spikelets 5 or 6, shortly peduncled ; female 
6-8, very long-pedicelled, slender, cylindrical, with male flower at top. Glumes entire, 
cuspidate or short-awncd. Stigmas 2. 
• Order XII. GRAMINEiE. 
Grasses, usually tufted plants, either perennial with often creeping rhi- 
zomes, or annual with fibrous roots. Culms hollow, closed at the joints, 
terete. Leaves alternate, usually distichous, very long, flat convolute or 
keeled ; sheaths split to the base, often having a membranous appendage 
(ligule), where the sheath joins the blade. — Blowers minute, hermaphrodite or 
unisexual, in the axils of imbricating 2-ranked scales (glumes), which are ar- 
ranged in spikelets. Spikelets green, spiked panicled or fascicled. Glumes 
usually coriaceous, lanceolate, concave, keeled and ribbed, rarely flat, lower 
2-4 empty, the rest often bearing a 2-nerved scale (pale) in their axis, between 
which and the glume is a hermaphrodite or unisexual flower ; in one section 
(Poaceee) there are only 2 empty (flowerless) glumes which are nearly oppo- 
site, and the rest are alternate on a slender rachis, the terminal being often 
imperfect ; in the other section the uppermost glume is always hermaphrodite, 
and those below it have either male flowers or are flowerless. Perianth of 2 
very minute, often oblique scales. Stamens 3 (rarely 1, 2, or 6, or more) ; 
filaments capillary ; anthers versatile. Ovary with 2 feathery stigmas ; ovule 
1, erect. Fruit a grain, free or adhering to the pale. Seed firmly adhering 
