Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/807

Mariscus.] Abundant in lowland districts throughout. Chiefly near the coast, extending as far south as Okarito (Hamilton) and northern Otago (Buchanan). Sea-level to 1500 ft. Toetoe-upoko-tangata; Toetoe-whatu-mami. November–January.

Stems simple, erect, without perfect leaves. Sheaths few. the uppermost cylindric, truncate or produced on one side into a short tooth. Inflorescence a single termmal many-flowered terete spikelet. Glumes many, imbricate all round the rhachis; the lowest 1 or 2 empty, shorter than the spikelet; many succeeding ones hermaphrodite and fruit-bearing; the uppermost male or sterile. Hypogynous bristles usually 6, but varymg from 3 to 8. rarely absent. Stamens 3 or fewer. Style swollen at the base; branches 3 or 2, linear. Nut obovoid, trigonous or plano-convex.

1. E. sphacelata, R. Br. Prodr. 224.—Rhizome stout, creeping, stoloniferous. Stems stout, cylindrical, 1–3 ft. high, ⅓ in. diam., hollow, transversely septate; sheaths long, membranous. Spikelet very large, 1–2 in. long, ⅓ in. diam., solitary, terminal, cylindrical, pale-coloured, tip acute. Glumes numerous, very closely imbricate, obovate-oblong, obtuse, 1-nerved, membranous, pale with a brown line just inside the scarious margin. Hypogynous bristles 6–9, usually exceeding the nut, retrorsely scabrid. Style very long, branches 3. Nut broadly obovoid, compressed, minutely granular, pale, crowned with the persistent dark-brown conic swollen base of the stvle.—''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 277; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 269; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 300; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 292 (Heleocharis).