Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/836

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Dwarf perennial herbs, forming dense cushion-shaped masses in alpme bogs. Stems branched, very closely compacted, leafy throughout. Leaves numerous, close-set, distichous and equitant, more rarely irregularly imbricate all round. Peduncle axillary, short at first but lengthening after the flowers expand, strict, compressed, bearing a terminal spikelet with or without 1 or 2 lateral ones. Spikelets minute, narrow, 1-flowered; flower hermapnrodite. Glumes 3 or rarely 4, the outer the largest, the second and third subequal, the fourth when present small, not much longer than the nut. Hypogynous scales (perianth-segments) 6, in 2 series, subequal, narrow, rigid, erect. Stamens 3. Style slender, continuous with the ovary; branches 3. Nut obovoid, obtuse with a depressed star-like mark at the apex, smooth.

1. O. pumilio, R. Br. Prodr. 236.—Stems much branched, short, ½–2 in. high, forming broad and dense cushion-shaped masses. Leaves obscurely distichous, ½–1½ in. long, erect or incurved, rarely spreading, narrow-linear, narrowed towards the obtuse tip, concave or almost flat in front, veinless or indistinctly 3-nerved; margins minutely serrulate; sheaths equitant, membranous, 3-nerved. Peduncles stout, rigid, mostly shorter than the leaves; spikelets usually 2, rarely 3 or 1. Glumes 3–4; the outer one the largest, leaf-like, 3-nerved; the second and third about equal; the fourth, when present, minute, not much exceeding the nut. Hypogynous scales narrow-lanceolate, acute, serrulate. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut small, obovoid. obtuse, whitish or brownish.—''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 308; Fl. Tasm.'' ii. 94; ''Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 346.

Nelson—Mount Rochfort and other mountains near Westpost, Townson! Westland—Arthur's Pass, T.F.C.; Kelly's Hill, Petrie! Worsley's Pass, Cockayne! Otago—Mountains above Lake Harris, Kirk! 2000–4000 ft.