Hydaiella. | CENTROLEPIDACEAE, 287 
Zealand. Male flowers: Stamens with a filiform filament and a 2-celled 
oblong anther. Female flowers: Ovaries densely crowded within the 
bracts, numerous, oblong or ovoid, not angled nor compressed, 1-celled and 
l-ovuled ; styles numerous, filiform, elongated, unequal in length. Fruit 
oblong or elliptic-ovoid, apparently imdehiscent. 
A genus of three species; two found in West Australia, the third endemic in New 
Zealand. It is closely allied to Juncella F. Muell. (Z'rithuria Hook, f.), but differs in 
the inflorescence being monoecious, in the stipitate flowers, in the longer and more 
numerous styles, and in the bracts being usually 3-0. 
1. H. ineonspieua Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxix (1907) 433. — 
A very minute slender perfectly glabrous annual herb, forming dense moss- 
like tufts 4-1 in. high. Leaves numerous, all radical, filiform, strict, erect, 
terete, gradually tapering to an acute point. Scapes very short in the 
flowering stage, lengthening to 4 or 2 the length of the leaves when in 
fruit. Bracts 3-5, erect or erecto-patent, linear-lanceolate to ovate- 
lanceolate, acute, thin and membranous, .—-$in. long. Heads unisexual ; 
males not seen, Ovaries densely crowded within the bracts, usually from 
10 to 20, shortly stipitate, ovoid or oblong-oveid, smooth, pale yellow- 
brown or reddish. Styles numerous, very delicate, forming a spreading 
brush at the tip of the ovary, and often much longer than it. Ripe fruit 
elliptic-ovoid, pale yellow-brown witha dark spot at each end.—Trithuria 
inconspicua Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 75d: inrwicsIa ace- to Htehinsan . 
Nortu Isutanp: Auckland—Sandy shores of Lake Ngatu, coast north of Ahipara, 
North Cape district, H, Carse and R. H. Matthews / Lake Rotoroa, in the same district, 
H, B. Matthews / 
A very curious and remarkable little plant, so far only knowa from the locality 
quoted above. It is clearly congeneric with the two Australian species, which have 
been excellently described and figured by Dr. Diels in his “ Fragmenta Phytographiae 
Australiae Occidentalis,” but differs from them in the stricter and more densely tufted 
habit, and more numerous bracts, 
2. CENTROLEPIS Labill. \ GO“. "wes - He Rh TH 1 
Small tufted annual or perennial herbs. Leaves all radical or imbricat- , 
ing along the stems, linear or filiform. Scape slender, terminating in 2 | 
floral bracts which are either subopposite or one a little above the other. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, sessile, from 1 to 5 within each bract; each flower 
with 1-3 hyaline scales, or rarely the scales altogether wanting. Stamen 1 ; 
filament very long, filiform; anther linear-oblong, l-celled. Carpels trom 
3-8 (sometimes reduced to 1), connate and superposed in 2 rows; styles 
as many as the carpels, filiform, free or connate at the base. Fruiting- 
carpels with a membranous pericarp, longitudmally dehiscent. 
A small genus of between 20 and 30 species, all confined to Australia, except one 
found in Cambodia, and the New Zealand plant, which is much more widely distributed 
in Australia than in New Zealand. 
EW. ) | 
ivan fF ace Ne and Schult. Syst. 1 (1817) 43.—A slender tufted 
annual herb 1-2in. high. Leaves all radical, much shorter than the 
scapes, expanded into a broad membranous sheathing base below, above 
very narrow-linear or filiform, hispid throughout with short spreading hairs. 
Scapes radical, slender, hispid like the leaves. Floral bracts 2, close together, 
ovate, awned at the tip, concave, spreading, hispid with long hairs. Flowers 
from 3 to 8 within each bract, each flower with 3 hyaline scales, the scales 
unequal in. length, the largest one usually as long as the bract, the others 
