Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/825

Cladium.]

1. C. Sinclairii, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 305.—Stems tall, leafy, quite flat, smooth, 2–5 ft. high, ¼ in. diam., forming large clumps. Leaves 2–4 ft. long, distichous and equitant at the base, acuminate, quite flat, ½–1 in. broad, pale-green, smooth, striate; margins thin, even. Panicle large, terminal, nodding, excessively branched, 9–12 in. long or more; bracts sheathing, 2-edged; branches drooping. Spikelets innumerable, rich dark red- brown, fascicled, ⅙ in. long, 2–3-flowered, the lower flower usually alone fertile. Glumes usually 5, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate or almost awned, minutely scabrid-pubescent, 2 or 3 outer empty. Hypogynous bristles wanting. Stamens 3, elongating after flowering. Style-branches 3. Nut small, red-brown, fusiform, trigonous, conspicuously narrowed at the base, and also upwards into a triquetrous minutely scabrid beak. C. gahnioides, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (188i) 340. Vincentia anceps, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 276. V. gladiata, ''Boeck. in Linnæa,'' xxxviii. (1874) 250.

2. C. complanatum, ''Berggr. in Minnesk. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund.'' (1877) 23, t. 6, f. 1–5.—Stems tall, rather stout, compressed and 2-edged, smooth, finely striate, 2–4 ft. high, ¼ in. diam. at the base. Leaves about the length of the stem, distichous and equitant at the base, narrow-ensiform, acuminate, flat or slightly convex, ¼–½ in. broad, pale-green, smooth, striate; margins even, not scabnd. Panicle long and narrow, 6–12 in., much branched; branches fascicled, erect; bracts sheathing, with ciliate margins. Spikelets numerous, chestnut-brown, ⅙–⅕ in. long, ovate-oblong, 2–3-flowered, 1 or 2 of the flowers fertile. Glumes usually 5, ovate, acuminate,