Carpha. | CYPERACEAE. 227 
crowded into a head. Bracts leafy, usually exceeding the inflorescence. 
Glumes rigidly membranous, linear-oblong, pale, shining, concave. Hypogy- 
nous bristles very large, in the fruiting stage exceeding the glumes, con- 
spicuously plumose for their whole length. Nut narrow-oblong, prismatic, 
tipped by the long hardened base of the style-—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i 
(1853) 273; Fl. Tasm. ii (1860) 84; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 299; Benth. 
Fl. Austral, vii (1878) 381, and in Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 1216. 
Norra Istanp: Mountain districts from Moehau (Cape Colville) and the East 
Cape southwards. Souru Istanp, Stewart Isnanp: Abundant in hilly and mountain 
districts throughout. AvuckLanp IsLANDS: Carnley Harbour, 7’. Kirk / Usually 
from 2500 to 5000 ft., but descends to sea-level in. Stewart Island. December—February. 
8. SCHOENUS Linn. ' 7% > 7 
Usually perennial herbs, of very various habit, stout, erect and rush- 
like, or slender and diffuse, rarely creeping. Leaves near the base of the 
stem or cauline, sometimes reduced to sheathing scales. Spikelets com- 
pressed, few-flowered, panicled or capitate or fascicled. Glumes more or 
less distichous, 3 or more outer ones empty, 1-4 succeeding ones herma- 
phrodite and fruit-bearing, uppermost male or empty; rhachilla elongated 
and flexuose between the flowering glumes, with the flowers seated in the 
alternate notches. Hypogynous bristles present or wanting. Stamens 
usually 3, rarely fewer or 4-6. Style slender, sometimes slightly thickened 
near the base ; style-branches 3. Nut obovoid, ovoid, or oblong, trigonous. 
A large genus of about 70 species, mainly from Australia and New Zealand, but a 
few are widely distributed in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and 
2-3 are Malayan. Of the 7 species found in New Zealand, 3 are endemic, the remaining 
4 extend to Australia and Tasmania. 
* Stems densely tufted, erect, terete, rush-like. Leaves either reduced to appressed 
sheaths or a short erect lamina alone present. Spikelets in a narrow terminal 
panicle. 
Stems 1-2 ft., rather stout. Spikelets many, }-}in. long. Hypogy- 
nous bristles wanting. Nut trigonows, faces transversely rugose 1. S. brevifolius. 
Stems 1-3 ft., slender. Spikelets few or many, fin. long. Hypogy- 
nous bristles present, equalling the nut or shorter than it. Nut 
obovoid, smooth “7 at 1e, * of 
Stems 1-2} ft., very slender. Spikelets many, }-+in. Hypogynous 
bristles wanting. Nut oblong, obtuse, not trigonous, white .. 3. S. Carset. 
Stems 1-3 ft., slender. Spikelets few (2-8), kin. Hypogynous 
bristles present, very long. Nut elliptic, trigonous, pale-brown.. 4. S. pauciflorus. 
2. S. Tendo. 
** Stems shorter, not so rigid, often diffuse. Leaves well developed. Spikelets 
fascicled or umbelled, sometimes solitary. 
Stems 2-6in., creeping or diffuse. Leaves alternate, spreading. 
Spikelets 1-3 in the axils of the leaves 4 A -. 5 S. axillaris. 
Stems 6-14 in., slender, diffuse. Leaves mostly at the base of the 
stems, linear. Spikelets in irregular umbels or fascicles -. 6. S. apogon. 
Stems 1-12 in., slender, wiry, rigid. Leaves few at the base of th 
stems. Spikelets sessile in a dense head, sometimes few or solitary 7. 8. nitens. 
1. §. brevifolius &. Br. Prodr. (1810) 231.—Rhizome short, stout, 
creeping. Stems rush-like, densely tufted, rigid, erect, terete, smooth 
and polished, 1-2 ft. high. Leaves reduced to 3 or 4 dark red-brown 
appressed sheaths at the base of the stem, the uppermost of which has a 
short rigid erect subulate lamina }-lin. long. Panicle narrow, 3-8 in. 
long ; branches slender, erect ; bracts at the base with appressed sheaths 
8* 
