Chiefly distinguishable from C. Gaudichaudiana by the larger size, more numerous and much longer often stalked spikelets, and by the awn to the glume, although the last is a variable character. Mr. C. B. Clarke considers it to be a variety of C. Gaudichaudiana.
20. C. ternaria, Forst. Prodr. n. 549.—Usually very tall and stout. Rhizome thick, stoloniferous. Culms robust, 1–4 ft. high, triquetrous with the angles very sharply scabrid, faces grooved and striate. Leaves numerous, equalling or exceeding the culms, broad, flat, grassy, grooved, ⅕–½ in. broad; margins and midrib beneath sharply scabrid; sheathing scales at the base of the leaves with the margins transversely fibrillose. Spikelets numerous, 8–24. dark-brown, stout, long-stalked, pendulous, 1–4 in. long; upper 1–6 male, solitary or the lower geminate; the remainder female, usually with male flowers at the top, geminate or ternate or even quinate, the lowest on very long peduncles; bracts very long and leafy, overtopping the inflorescence. Glumes lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, obtuse or retuse at the tip, with a stout hispid awn of very variable length but usually exceeding the utricles, dark-brown with a green keel. Utricle ovate, compressed, nerved, brownish, narrowed into a very short beak with an entire mouth. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong.—Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 89; Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 282; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 314; Boott, Ill. Car. iv. tt. 596–598; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 431. C. geminata, Schkuhr, Riedgr. i. 65; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 290. C. polystachya, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 118, t. 21.
Var. gracilis, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 431.—Tall, slender. Leaves usually narrower, ⅛–⅕ in. broad. Spikelets numerous, long, often over 4 in., slender, sometimes barely ⅙ in. diam.
Var. pallida, Cheesem. l.c.—Stout. Leaves strict, rigid, often coriaceous. Spikelets fewer, short, pale, on long filiform peduncles. Utricles broader and more turgid, indistinctly nerved, sometimes with serrate margins.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Island.—The typical form and var. gracilis abundant throughout, var. pallida not uncommon in the mountains of the South Island. Sea-level to 4000 ft. November–February.
Very distinct in its ordinary state, but small slender forms appear to run into C. subdola and into the following species.
21. C. Sinclairii, Boott, MS. in. Herb. Kew.—Rhizome creeping, stoloniferous. Culms slender or rather stout, triquetrous, scabrid above, 6–18 in. high. Leaves shorter or longer than the culms. Hat, grassy, striate, 115–18 in. broad; margins scabrid; sheaths at the base not transversely fibrillose. Spikelets 4–6, erect or nearly so, short, stalked or the uppermost sessile, ½–1½ in. long; terminal 1 or 2 male, very slender; remainder female, usually with a few male flowers at the top, solitary or the upper geminate, rarely compound at the base, the lower usually on longer peduncles.
