Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/837

797 Var. pectinatus, C. B. Clarke, MS.—Larger and softer, sometimes forming tufts 3–5 ft. high and a foot or more in diam. Leaves conspicuously distichous, often almost flabellately arranged, with broad equitant 5–7-nerved membranous sheathing bases; lamina linear-subulate, rigid, channelled in front. Peduncles 1-flowered, often eaualling or exceeding the leaves in fruit.—O. pectinatus, ''Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 87, t. 49; Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 275.

From the summit of Moehau (Cape Colville) and Taupo southwards, abundant in mountainous districts. Altitudinal range usually from 2000 to 4500 ft., but descending to sea-level in Stewart Island and the Auckland and Campbell Islands.

I have followed Mr. C. B. Clarke's views in the arrangement of the two forms of O. pumilio described above. The typical variety is also found on the mountains of Victoria and Tasmania; var. pectinatus is endemic.

2. O. strictus, ''Berggr. in Minneskr. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund.'' (1877) 25, t. 6, f. 12–24.—Stems 2–3 in. high, creeping and rooting at the base, laxly tufted, much branched; branches not nearly so dense as in O. pumilio, erect, curved, leafy throughout their length. Leaves obscurely distichous, 1–2½ in. long, strict and erect or secund, very narrow-linear, deeply canaliculate above, obtuse, margins minutely serrulate; sheaths broad, membranous, 3–5-nerved, rounded or truncate at the tip. Peduncle much shorter than the leaves; spikelets 1, rarely 2, narrow. Glumes 3; outer the largest, minutely serrulate; the two others subequal, narrow, erect. Hypogynous scales 6, narrow-lanceolate, acute, minutely serrulate. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3, long, filiform. Nut small, obovoid, narrowed at the base, obtuse, white.—O. serrulatus, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1890) 492.

Perennial herbs, usually tufted and grass-like, with fibrous roots. Culms erect, terete or obscurely trigonous, striate, leafy at the base. Leaves very narrow-linear, flat or involute, often keeled, margins usually scabrid. Spikelets unisexual, arranged in a simple linear or oblong spike; male terminal; females placed lower down. Glumes imbricated all round the axis, ovate or oblong or lanceolate, obtuse or acute or the lower ones awned, concave, 1–3-nerved. Male flowers with 3 stamens; filaments filiform in all the New Zealand species, flat and dilated in some