218 CYPERACEAE. [ Eleocharis. 
4-8, exceeding the nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut broadly 
obovoid, biconvex, smooth or very minutely pitted, brown, crowned by 
the small conic style-base—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 745; Benth. 
Fl. Austral. vii (1878) 294 (Heleocharis) ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 
768. . gracilis (excl. var. b and y) Hook. f. Fl. Nov, Zel. 1 (1853). 2770 ; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 301. E. ambigua 7. Kirk ex Buch, m Prans. cf be 
2. AW) 
Inst. vi (1874) 225. Le ee es >. per t. d 
VA. +e mls Cars “Tt itaS ot al Ste *> of f, 
Cv 
SS 
KERMADEC IsLanpos: W. R. B. Oliver! Norta anp Souta ISLANDS, CHATHAM 
Istanps : Abundant in wet places from the North Cape to Foveaux Strait. STEWART 
IsuanpD : Cockayne. Sea-level to 3500 ft. November-~-March. 
Also plentiful in Australia, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island. _ 
Av-nec > K-Ba- ae | 
5. E. Cunninghamii Boeck. in Flora, xli (1858) 412 (Heleocharis).— 
Rhizome long, creeping, scaly, stout or slender, dark red-brown or almost 
black. Stems many from the rhizome, variable in length, 3-15 1in., very 
slender, sometimes almost filiform, striate; sheath membranous, with a 
thin oblique mouth. Spikelet small, short, 4-jin. long, broadly ovoid, 
subacute, 5—20-flowered.  Glumes broadly oblong, obtuse, membranous, 
usually pale but often stained with red-brown; margins broad, scarious. 
Hypogynous bristles 4-8, exceeding the nut. Style-branches 3. Nut 
broadly obovoid, plano-convex or obscurely trigonous, smooth, pale yellowish- 
brown, crowned by the smali pyramidal style-base, which is rather broader 
thar the top of the nut.—Linnaea, xxxvi (1869-70) 427; Cheesem. Man. 
N.Z. Fl. (1906) 769. E. gracilis var. gracillima and var. radicans Hook. 
f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 270; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 301 (not of R. Br.). 
K. gracillima Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 745. Heleocharis Hooker 
Boeck. in Linnaea, xxxvi (1869-70) 430. Isolepis acicularis A. Rach. 
Fl. Nouv. Zel. (18382) 103 (not of R. Br.). 
Norts anp Sours Isnanps.—Wet places from the North Cape to Foveaux Strait, 
but often local in the South Island. Srewart Istanp: Swampy ground, Cockayne / 
Sea-level to 4500 ft. November-March. 
Hooker’s two varieties gracillima and radicans, originally published as forms ot 
the Australian EZ. gracilis, only differ in size and degree of development, radicans being 
clearly a depauperated state. In many localities they can be seen to merge into one 
another. Boeckeler, probably working upon scanty herbarium material, treated them 
as distinct species, publishing his HZ. Cunninghamii, which answers to var. radicans, 
in 1858, and #. Hookeri, which is equivalent to var. gracillima, in 1869. Cunning- 
hamii bas several years’ priority over Hooker’s gracillima, which was not published until 
1867, but it is unfortunate that it was not originally applied to what must be con- 
sidered the type of the species, Hooker’s var. gracillima. 
a 
i ede Pan 
5. FIMBRISTYLIS Vahl. (¢% & 
Annual or perennial tufted herbs, usually of small or medium size. 
Leaves from near the base of the stem, grassy or filiform. Inflorescence 
a terminal simple or compound umbel, or reduced to a solitary terminal 
pikelet. Spikelets many-flowered. Glumes imbricate all round or rarely 
distichous ; the lowest 1-2 empty; the remainder all hermaphrodite, or 
the uppermost male or sterile. Hypogynous bristles wanting. Stamens 3, 
more rarely 2 or 1. Style often hairy or ciliate, with a bulbiform or conic 
base, deciduous ; style-branches 3 or 2. Not obovoid, trigonous or biconvex, 
often narrowed at the base. 
A large genus of about 140 species, found in all tropical or warm temperate regions. 
