Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/829

Cladium.], smooth, wiry, rigid, 9–18 in. high. Leaves 1 or 2 like the stems, 2–10 in. long, sometimes reduced to sheathing scales. Panicle contracted into a dense oblong spike-like head ⅓–½ in. long, subtended by a rigid sheathing bract terminated by a subulate erect point. Spikelets few, densely compacted, ⅙ in. long, 1-flowered. Glumes 5–6, ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, coriaceous, puberulous, the terminal one subtending the flower, the remainder all empty. Hypogynous scales 6, small, white, triangular, connate into a 6-lobed cup. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut broadly oblong, obtusely trigonous, smooth, redbrown; beak short, ovoid-conic, pubescent.—Vauthiera australis, ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 107, t. 20; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 276; Raoul, Choix,'' 40. Lepidosperma australe, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 279. L. tetragonum, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 307 (not of Labill.)''.

10. C. capillaceum, C. B. Clarke, MS.—Rhizome short, creeping. Stems densely tufted, very slender, filiform, wiry, terete, finely striate, 9–18 in. high. Leaves reduced to a single closely apnressed purplish-red sheath, usually with a very minute erect scale-like lamina at the tip. Panicle terminal, very small, slender, ½–¾ in. long, of from 3 to 7 spikelets. Spikelets narrow, obscurely distichous, ⅛–⅙ in. long, 1-flowered. Glumes usually 5, ovate-lanceolate, awned, membranous, the 3 outer empty. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut oblong-ovoid, 3-ribbed, pale, smooth, crowned by the long and narrow pubescent style-base, which is as long as the nut itself.—Chætospora capillacea, ''Hook. f. Fl. Tasm.'' ii. 81, t. 141 (not of Nees). C. capillaris, ''F. Muell. Fragm. Phyt. Austral.'' ix. 34. Elynanthus capillaceus, ''Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 377. Schœnus capillaris, ''F. Muell. Second Census Austral. Pl.'' 215. S. tenuis, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. i. ed. ii. (1871) 94.

Perennial herbs. Stems stout, leafy at the base, often flat or compressed. Leaves similar to the stems, sheathing at the base. Inflorescence a terminal panicle, either long and much branched, or