Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/840

800 are nearly twice the size, and in this respect approaches U. nervosa. Some specimens collected by Petrie at Kelly's Hill, Westlaiid, with shorter and more wiry leaves, and a rather longer spike are almost intermediate between the present plant and U. nervosa.

3. U. nervosa, ''Boott ex Hook. f. Fl. Tasm.'' ii. 102, t. 153.—Culms densely tufted, slender, strict and wiry, 4–9 in. high, leafy at the base only. Leaves shorter than the culms, strict, erect, wiry, filiform, $1⁄40$–$1⁄30$ in. diam.; margins involute. Spike much more slender than in U. compacta, and not so dense, ⅓–⅔ in. long, about ⅙ in. diam.; lowest glume sometimes produced into a filiform bract. Glumes ovate-lanceolate, subacute, pale-brown, keel distinctly 3-nerved or plicate; margins thin and membranous, almost scarious. Utricles equalling or slightly exceeding the glumes, oblong-lanceolate, narrowed at both ends, trigonous, glabrous, distinctly nerved; bristle about twice the length of the utricle. Nut trigonous.—U. compacta var. nervosa, ''C. B. Clarke in Journ. Linn. Soc.'' xx. 395. U. Cheesemaniana, ''Boeck. in Engl. Bot. Jahr.'' v. (1884) 521.

4. U. compacta, R. Br. Prodr. 241.—Rhizome creeping, stoloniferous. Culms rather stout, rigid, obscurely trigonous, leafy towards the base, variable in size, in dry open or alpine situations often dwarfed to 2 in. or even less, in moist sheltered or shaded localities attaining 8–12 in. Leaves usually shorter than the stems but sometimes equalling or even exceeding them, subrigid, flat, grassy, striate, $1⁄12$–$1⁄8$ in. broad; margins scabrid. Spike short, stout, dense, oblong, ½–1 in. long by about ¼ in. diam., pale greenish-brown to chestnut-brown; the lowest glume sometimes produced into a leaf-like bract occasionally exceeding the spike. Glumes ovate-lanceolate, acute or subacute; keel greenish, 1–3-nerved; margins pale-brown, membranous. Stamens 3. Utricles about equalling the glumes, oblong-lanceolate, narrowed at both ends, trigonous, glabrous, smooth or faintly nerved, spreading when fullv ripe; bristle stout, about twice the length of the utricle. Nut trigonous.—''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 309; Fl. Tasm.'' ii. 102, t. 153; ''Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 434; ''C. B. Clarke in Journ. Linn. Soc.'' xx. 394. U. divaricata, ''Boott ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 286. U. Clarkii, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1887) 185.

Var. Petriei, C. B. Clarke, MS.—Less rigid. Spike longer and not so dense, 1–2 in. long; bract usually overtopping the spike. Utricles smaller, more evidently stipitate. Otherwise as in the type.