Gahnia. | CYPERACEAE. 237 
flower, often 4-6 in the male flower; filaments greatly elongated after 
flowering, and often holding the nut. Nut hard and bony, ellipsoid or 
ovoid or obovoid, obscurely trigonous or terete, red or reddish-brown or 
black. : 
Species about 35, most of them natives of Australia and New Zealand, but 
extending through the Pacific islands to the Sandwich Islands and Malay Archipelago, 
Of the 8 found in New Zealand, one occurs in Lord Howe Island and another in the 
Sandwich Islands, the remaining 6 are endemic. The genus is remarkable for the 
extraordinary extent to which the filaments lengthen after flowering. In G. procera 
they are often quite 2 in. long, or from 8 to 10 times the length of the flowering glumes. 
They generally remain attached to the base of the nut after it has fallen away, and as 
the other end of the filament is usually entang!ed with the glumes or with the filaments 
of other flowers the nut remains swinging by the filaments quite free from the spikelet. 
Mr. Colenso (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xviii (1886) 281) has suggested that some of these 
filaments are in reality hypogynous scales, giving as a reason for this belief that in his 
G. scaberula and G@. exigua he has noticed within the same flower stamens with the 
filaments still very short, and filaments already lengthened to the full extent. He failed 
to notice that the lower male flower expands long before the hermaphrodite flower 
placed just above it, so that its filaments have lost their anthers and lengthened long 
_ before the expansion of the upper flower takes place. The two flowers are placed so 
close together that it is quite easy to take the two for one. 
Tall, 3-7 ft. Panicle 1-3 ft., nodding. Glumes 7-8; 4-5 empty, 
unequal. Nut small, fins ted-hrown. se ue .. 1. G. setifolia. 
Smaller, 2-4 ft. Panicle 14-24 ft., rigid, erect. Glumes 6-7; 
3-4 empty, subequal. Nut small, }in., red-brown... 2. G. rigida. - 
Slender, 2-4ft. Panicle 14-2) ft., narrow, elongate, branches 
distant. Glumes 8; 5 empty, unequal. Fruit large, 4-4 in., 
red-brown- +5 ny iA +. Ul ECC Oe I ORES be 
Very tall and stout, 5-12 ft. Panicle 2-5ft., nodding. Glumes 
6-7; 4-5 empty, subequal. Nut large,4-jin., black when fully 
ripe 929 5 dg ~ rs Pa .. 4. G. wanthocarpa. - 
Tall and stout, 5-7ft. Panicle 2-3 ft., rigid, erect. Glumes 8 ; 
5 empty, subequal. Nut small, }in., black ae .. &. G. robust, — 
Leafy, 2-4 ft. Panicle 1-1} ft., narrow, lax. Glumes4; 2empty, 
very long. Nut large, 4 in., red-brown = 4 .. 6. G. procera. *. 
Slender, 2-4ft. Panicle 9-18in., slender, narrow but dense. 
Glumes 4-5; 2-3 empty. Nut small, 4in., black .. ». ay G.tacera. = 
Small, 6-14 in. Leaves exceeding the stem, spreading. Glumes 
6; 4empty. Nut small, ovoid, apiculate, black rer .. 8. G.gahniaeformis. » 
1. G. setifolia Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 278.—Stems numerous, 
tall, stout, 3-7 ft. high, forming large tussocks. Leaves many, almost 
-as long as the stems, involute, with scabrid cutting edges and long filiform 
points. Panicle large, nodding, 1-3 ft. long, much and laxly branched ; 
branches long, erect in flower, drooping in fruit; bracts long and leaty, 
with scabrid filiform points. Spikelets very numerous, dark-brown or 
almost black, 4-1 in. long, 2-flowered ; the lower flower male, the upper 
hermaphrodite and fruit-bearing. Glumes 7-8; the 4-5 outer ones empty, 
gradually increasing in length, keeled, acuminate, minutely scaberulous ; 
the 3 upper very small at the time of flowering and concealed within the 
uppermost empty glume, enlarged in fruit and closely appressed to the 
nut, obtuse, convolute. Stamens usually 4 to each flower, but varying 
from 4 to 6; filaments greatly elongated in fruit. Style-branches 3, 
rarely 4. Nut small, din. long, elliptic-obovoid, narrowed at both ends, 
smooth and_ shining, indistinctly grooved, red-brown when fully ripe, 
transversely grooved within.— Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1860) 306; 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 792; C. B. Clarke Ill. Cyp. (1909) t. xeviii, 
f. 1-7. G. scaberula, G. parviflora, and G. multiglumis Col. in Trans. 
