beaked utricles, which are very sharply toothed above. Depauperated states of C. Kirkii resemble it in habit, but can be distinguished by the male flowers being at tbe top of the spikelets.
14. C. Colensoi, Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 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, 130–120 in. wide at the base, wiry; margins involute. Spikelets 2–4 or solitary, compacted into a terminal cluster, androgynous, broadly ovoid, turgid, dark-brown, ¼–⅓ in. 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. Utricle 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. 312; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 425. C. picta, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1889) 103.
North and South Islands: 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.
15. C. echinata, Murr. Prodr. Stirp. Gotting. 76.— Culms more or less densely tufted, slender, trigonous, leafy at the base, 4–18 in. high. Leaves usually shorter than the culms, flat, grassy, grooved, 125–115 in. broad; margins scabrid. Spikelets 3–5, approximate in a terminal spike or a little remote, sessile, androgynous, green or pale-brown, about ¼ in. 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 long bidentate beak; margins of the beak acute, minutely scabrid, or nearly smooth in most of the New Zealand specimens. Styles 3. Nut lenticular.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 439; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 426. C. stellulata, Good. in Trans. Linn. Soc. ii. (1794) 144; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 281; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 312. C. debilis, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. (1878) 412 (name only).
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Marshy places from the Upper Thames Valley southwards, not uncommon. Sea-level to 4000 ft. November–March.
Widely distributed in the temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere, but only known from Australia and New Zealand in the Southern.
