212 GRAMINEAE. 7 [ Asperella. 
ee | Z 
2. ~A. laevis { Petrie) in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii (1895) 406.—Culms 
branched from the base, slender, erect or diffuse, sparingly leafy, 10-30 in. 
high. Leaves 3-9 in. long, 4} in. broad, flat or involute, striate, smooth 
or nearly so; sheaths smooth or puberulous; ligules short. Spike 3-6 in. 
long, slender, of 15-30 spikelets; rhachis flat, flexuous, scabrid on the 
edges. Spikelets pale-green, about in. long, 1-2-flowered. Two outer 
glumes always present, reduced to linear-subulate bristles about ? 
the length of the lower flowering glume, subequal, erect, channelled, 
scabrid. Flowering glumes lanceolate, faintly 3-5-nerved, rounded on the 
back, quite smooth, unequally 3-toothed at the apex, the middle tooth 
produced into a short scabrid mucro. Palea rather shorter than the 
glume, keels smooth or minutely ciliolate—Cheesem. Man N.Z. Fl. (1906) 
924. 
Soutu Isnranp: Nelson—Clarence Vallev, 7'. Kirk! Otago—Matukituki Valley, 
Catlin’s River, Petrie! Waikawa, H. J. Matthews! Doubtful Sonnd, B. C. Aston / 
Sea-level to 2000 ft. 
Very close to A. gracilis, from which it differs in the two outer glumes being 
always present, and in the flowering glumes being smooth, obscurely nerved, and 
truncately 3-toothed at the apex, the middle tooth being produced into a short stout 
mucro. Further observation is reyuired to prove the constancy of these characters. 
Family XII. CYPERACEAE. 
Grassy or rush-like herbs, usually perennial. Stems solid or rarely 
slightly hollow, often trigonous, sometimes compressed or terete. Leaves 
alternate, mostly radical, few or many, sometimes wanting or reduced 
to sheathing scales ; sheaths closed, not split to the base. Flowers herma- 
phrodite or unisexual, minute, solitary and sessile in the axils of small 
imbricated bracts (glumes), which are aggregated into few- or many-flowered 
(rarely 1-flowered) spikelets. Spikelets either. solitary and terminal, or 
arranged in spikes, racemes, panicles, or clusters. Glumes rigid or scarious 
or membranous, concave, distichous or imbricated all round, persistent 
or deciduous, 1 or 2 (rarely more) at the base of each spikelet empty. 
Perianth wanting or represented by few hypogynous bristles or scales. 
Stamens 1-3, rarely 4-6, hypogynous ; filaments linear, flat, often elongating 
after flowering ; anthers usually exserted from the spikelet and pendulous, 
linear, basifixed, 2-celled. Ovary entire, 1-celled, in Carex and its allies 
enclosed in a peculiar flask-shaped organ called the utricle or perigynium 
formed of 1 or 2 modified bracteoles; style short or long, 2-3-cleft, 
divisions stigmatic on the inner side ; ovule solitary, basal, erect, anatropous. 
Fruit a small indehiscent nut (in Carex enclosed in the utricle), lenticular . 
or compressed or more often trigonous. Seed erect; testa membranous ; 
albumen farinaceous; embryo minute, at the very base of the albumen. 
A very large family, found in all parts of the world, both temperate and tropical, 
and in almost all stations, but most abundant in marshes, or by the margins of lakes 
and rivers. It is closely allied to grasses, being chiefly distinguished by the stiffer 
habit, solid and usually angled or compressed stems, entire leaf-sheaths, basifixed anthers, 
undivided (not plumose) stigmas, and by the position of the embryo. Genera 68; 
species estimated at 3500. Notwithstanding the extent of the order, it is of little 
economic importance. The herbage is too coarse and harsh, and too deficient in 
nutritive properties, to be serviceable as food for cattle ; and the seed is useless. The 
tuberous roots of certain species of Scirpus and Cyperus contain starch, and have been 
used as food, while in others they are bitter, tonic, and stimulating, and have been 
employed in medicine. Many species are serviceable for paper-making, or in the 
