CYPERACEAE. VAS 
fabrication of mats, baskets, &c. The paper of the ancients was manufactured from 
the well-known Papyrus, a plant common along the Nile and in other parts of tropical 
Africa. Of the 14 genera found in New Zealand 9 are either cosmopolitan or very 
widely distributed ; 2 (Carpha and Oreobolus) are confined to Australia and South 
America; Uncinia has a similar range, but extends northwards to the Sandwich 
Islands, Mexico, and the West Indies; the 2 remaining (Lepidosperma and Gahnia) 
are mainly Australian, but reach ‘as far north as Malaya and China. 
In the first edition of this work I received great assistance from the late Mr. C. B. 
Clarke, who had an unrivalled knowledge of the family. He not only supplied me with 
full information and critical notes respecting the New Zealand species, but also provided 
me with a list of the synonymy of the species, which proved to be of the greatest 
possible use, and which I have again consulted, with much profit, during the present 
rearrangement. I have also to acknowledge the great help derived from Pastor 
Kukenthal’s recent revision of the genera Uncinia and Carex, given in Heft 30 of 
Kingler’s Pflanzenreich. 
Tribe CyPpEREAE.—Spikelets usually many-flowered, flat or compressed. Glumes 
distichous, imbricate, lower 1-2 empty. Flowers hermaphrodite or the upper 
1-2 male by arrest. Hypogynous bristles absent. 
Spikelets small, 1- or rarely 2-flowered, clustered in a simple 
or lobed head. Style 2-fid re : .. 1, Kygernega. ~ 
Spikelets many-flowered ; glumes falling away from the per- 
sistent rhachilla. Style 3-fid ‘3 .. 2, CYPERUS. ‘ 
Spikelets many-flowered ; glumes persistent, the rhachilla finally 
coming away above the 2 lowest. Style 3-fid y .. 3 MArRIsous. - 
Tribe ScrRPEAE.—Spikelets usually many-flowered, terete. Glumes spirally arranged, 
lower 1-2 empty. Flowers hermaphrodite or the upper 1-2 male. Hypogynous 
bristles often present. 
Leafless. Spikelet solitary, terminal. Nut crowned by the 
persistent thickened base of the style. Hypogynous bristles 
present ad - ne ad Py .. 4, ELEOCHARIS. J 
Leaves radical. Spikelets umbellate. Style bulbous at the base, 
usually deciduous. Hypogynous bristles wanting .. 5. HIMBRISTYLIS, 
Spikelets few or many, fascicled or umbelled. Style not thickened 
at the base, continuous with the nut. Hypogynous bristles 
present or wanting a s2 oa . .. 6. ScCIRPUS. ¥ 
Tribe RHYNCHOSPOREAE.—Spikelets 1- or few-flowered, terete or compressed. Glumes 
spirally arranged, several (usually more than 2) of the lower ones empty. 
Hermaphrodite flowers 1 or 2; the remainder male or imperfect. 
Alpine, leafy at the base. Spikelets in a terminal corymb, com- 
pressed, pale, 1-flowered ; oa 4, distichous. Hypogynous 
bristles long, plumose_ ... . 7. CARPHA. 
Spikelets few-flowered, compressed ; ‘glumes. several, distichous.. 
Rhachilla often elongated and flexuose between the flowers .. 8. SCHOENUS. e 
Spikelets 1-7-flowered, lowest flower alone hermaphrodite ; glumes 
not distichous. Stamens 3, rarely elongating. Hypogynous 
bristles wanting. . .. 9. CLADIUMr + 
Spikelets 1-3-flow ered, upper flower alone hermaphrodite. Sta- 
mens 3, rarely elongating. Hypogynous bristles present .. 10. LEPIDOSPERMA, 
Tall, harsh and grassy. Spikelets 1-3-flowered, upper flower 
alone hermaphrodite. Stamens 3-6, usually elongating in 
fruit and holding the nut. Hypogynous bristles wanting .. 11. Gannta. 
Dwarf alpine plants forming dense cushions in bogs. Spikelets 
solitary or 2-3 together, ‘1 -flowered ; Sa 3. pi il | 
scales (perianth) 6, persistent . .. 12. OREOBOLUS. Vv 
Tribe CarnicEaAr.—Spikelets monoecious, the male and female flowers in the same or in 
distinct spikelets; rarely dioecious. Nuts enclosed in an entire or 2-fid inflated 
sac (utricle). 
Spikelet solitary, androgynous. Rhachilla produced bey the 
utricle into a hooked bristle 2 »- 13. UNoINIA. 
Spikelet solitary, or more often clustered or spicate or “panicled, 
androgynous or unisexual. Rhachilla not produced beyond 
the utricle 4, . ns fa :s .. 14, Carex. 
