fe nigh eee ke Se Ror fee 
cee atolls. Syech Mand. Gut bok. Hind. w P5452. 
Carex. | CYPERACEAE. 261 
length of the culm and much longer than it, narrow, sometimes almost 
filiform, involute; margins scabrid. Spikelets 2-3 or solitary, crowded 
into a compact head iin. long, pale-green, androgynous ; bracts 2-3, 
very long and leafy. Glumes broadly ovate, acuminate or cuspidate ; 
margins thin, pale; keel stout, 1-3-nerved. Male flowers 1-3 at the base 
of the spikelet, sometimes absent; female flowers 3-8. Utricle ovate 
below, plano-convex, strongly nerved, narrowed upwards into a long 
tapering serrate deeply bifid beak. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, plano- 
convex or obscurely trigonous.— Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 816; Kukenth. 
in Pflanzenr. Heft 38 (1909) 188. CC. inversa var. radicata Cheesem. 
m Trans, N.Z. Inst. xvi (1884) 425. 
Sourn IsLanp: Canterbury—Clarence Valley, Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, 7. #.C. |). 
Otago— Common in the dry upland plains of the interior, Petrie / 500-3000 ft. “" = 
December—March. 
Very close to C. inversa, but separated by the much smaller size and more rigid 
habit, wiry almost filiform leaves, short culms sheathed to the top by the leaves, and 
long-beaked utricles, which are very sharply toothed above. Depauperated states of 
C. Kirkia resemble it in habit, but ean be distinguished by the male flowers being at 
the top of the spikelets. 
15. €. Colensoi Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 281, t. 63B.— 
Rhizome stout, woody, creeping, often much branched. Culms 3-14 in. 
high, very slender, almost filiform, weak, flexuous, trigonous, deeply 
grooved, leafy towards the base. Leaves usually shorter than the culms, 
but sometimes equalling or even exceeding them, narrow, 4-245 m. wide 
at the base, wiry; margins involute. Spikelets 2-4 or solitary, com- 
pacted into a terminal cluster, androgynous, broadly ovoid, turgid, dark- 
brown, 4-41in. long; bracts 1 or 2, unequal. Glumes broadly ovate, 
acute or the lower ones cuspidate, membranous; keel narrow, green ; 
sides chestnut-brown; margins broad, white and hyaline. Male flowers 
at the base of the spikelets, female flowers above. Ubtricle broadly ovate, 
plano-convex, not beaked, brown when ripe, smooth, indistinctly nerved ; 
margins serrate above. Styles 2. Nut elliptic-oblong, smooth.—Hook. f. 
Handb. N.Z, Fl. (1864) 312; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi (1884) 
425; Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 817; Kukenth. in Pflanzenr. Heft 38 (1909) : 
{ : | ae ; S ares ~S . : 
189. C. picta Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi (1889) 103. wut (Senco 5 
NortH AND SovutH Istanps: Not uncommon in hilly districts from the Upper 
Thames southwards. Sea-level to 4500 ft. November—March. 
Also in south-eastern Australia, according to Mr. C. B. Clarke. 
Cl et wiicete &. Sp. PC.076 3! Dee. 
16. C. stellulata Good. in Trans. Linn. Soc. ii (1794) 144.— Culms 
more or less densely tufted, slender, trigonous, leafy at the base, 
4-18in. high. Leaves usually shorter than the culms, flat, grassy, 
grooved, ='s-;';in. broad; margins scabrid. Spikelets 3-5, approximate 
in a terminal spike or a little remote, sessile, androgynous, green or 
pale-brown, about jin. long when mature; lowest bract short, subulate. 
Glumes ovate, acute or obtuse, membranous, pale-brown or green with a 
dark-green centre. Male flowers at the base of the spikelets, usually few ; 
females more numerous. Utricle yellowish-green, much longer than its 
glume, spreading when ripe, giving the spikelet a squarrose appearance, 
ovate-lanceolate from a rounded and spongy base, plano-convex, many- 
nerved, narrowed above into a bidentate beak: margins of the beak 
acute, minutely scabrid, or nearly smooth in most of the New Zealand 
