Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/822

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4. S. pauciflorus, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 298.—Rhizome short, stout, branched at the tip. Stems densely tufted, very slender, deeply grooved, 1–3 ft. high, green or purplish-red. Leaves reduced to 2–4 dark chestnut-brown or almost black sheaths at the base of the stem, the uppermost of which is produced into an erect almost filiform lamina 1–3 in. long; the mouths of the sheaths oblique, glabrous. Panicle small, ¾–2 in. long, of 2–8 spikelets; bracts usually 2, overtopping the panicle. Spikelets lanceolate, compressed, ¼ in. long, 2–4-flowered, varying in colour from whitish to dark chestnut-brown. Glumes 4–6, distichous, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, nerveless except the midrib; margins glabrous; the 3 outer slightly smaller, empty. Hypogynous bristles 6, filiform, almost equalling the style. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut elliptic-obiong, trigonous with the angles thickened, smooth, polished, pale-brown.—Chætospora pauciflora, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 273.

5. S. axillaris, ''Poir. Encycl. Suppl.'' ii. 251.—Stems very slender, pale-green, flaccid, leafy, branched, creeping or diffusely spreading, often intricate, 2–6 in. long or more. Leaves alternate, spreading, ½–1 in. long, very narrow-linear, obtuse, flat or nearly so, flaccid. Spikelets 1–3 together in the axils of the leaves, sessile or shortly peduncled, about $1⁄10$ in. long, compressed, pale-brown, 1–2-flowered. Glumes distichous, lanceolate, subacute, keeled; the 2 or 3 outer empty and smaller. Hypogynous bristles 6, rarely fewer, longer than the nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut very small, elliptic-obovoid, obtusely trigonous, quite smooth, white or greyish-white.—''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 298; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 375. Chætospora axillaris, ''R. Br. Prodr. 233; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 274, t. 62; Fl. Tasm.'' ii. 82. Scirpus foliatus, ''Hook. f. in Lond. Journ. Bot.'' iii. 1844, 414.