branches of the panicle rigid, erect, closely appressed to the rhachis, the lower usually remote and sometimes conspicuously so. Glumes almost equalling the utricles, broadly ovate, acute or acuminate, concave, membranous, brown with a narrow pale line down the centre; margins not silvery. Utricle stipitate, ovoid or triangular-ovoid, often subcordate at the base, plano-convex, conspicuously many-nerved on both faces, contracted into a short 2-toothed beak; margins incurved, conspicuously ciliate-denticulate. Styles 2. Nut broadly ovoid, biconvex.—Boott, Ill. Car. i. 46, t. 121, 122; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 313. C. paniculata var. virgata, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 427. C. collata, Boott in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iii. (1844) 417 (name only).
North and South Islands: Abundant in swamps throughout. Sea-level to 3000 ft. November–January.
Very close to C. appressa, but the culms are more slender and not bo acutely triquetrous, the leaves are narrower, and the panicle much longer and narrower, and not so dense.
11. C. secta, Boott in. Hook f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 281.—A very large species. Rhizomes matted, often forming trunk-like masses 2–4 ft. high and much resembling the stem of a tree-fern. Culms 2–4 ft., slender, inclined or drooping above, trigonous with the angles scabrid, grooved, leafy at the base. Leaves numerous, as long or longer than the culms, 110–16 in. broad, grooved, keeled below, flat above; margins scabrid. Spikelets very numerous, pale-brown, small, few-flowered, androgynous with the male flowers at the top, arranged in a much and laxly branched often decompound nodding panicle 1–2½ ft. long; the primary divisions usually very long and slender, much branched, the spikelets often remote on the branches. Glumes almost equalling the utricles, broadly ovate, acuminate or cuspidate, thin and membranous, pale-brown with a paler line down the centre and scarious hyaline margins. Utricles rather smaller than those of C. virgata, shortly stipitate, broadly ovoid, turgid, plano-convex or unequally biconvex, polished and shining, quite smooth or very indistinctly nerved, contracted into a rather broad 2-toothed beak, the margins of which are ciliate-denticulate. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, biconvex.—Ill. Car. i. 47, t. 123, 124. C. virgata var. secta, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 313. C. paniculata var. secta, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 428.
North and South Islands: Abundant in swamps from the North Cape to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 2500 ft. November–January.
Easily distinguished from C. virgata by the much larger and laxly branched often decompound nodding panicles, and by the smaller utricles, which are smooth and shining or very indistinctly nerved. The immense tussocks formed by the matted rootstocks are very conspicuous objects in swampy districts, and have had the local name of "nigger-heads" applied to them.
