Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/845

Uncinia.] Much too closely allied to U. riparia, from which it can only be separated by the smaller size, usually shorter spike, and by the glumes being often tinged with chestnut-brown or purplish-red, whereas they are usually green in the forms of U. riparia. From U. filiformis it is removed by the stouter habit, broader flat leaves, and rather stouter spike.

12. U. filiformis, ''Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 286.—Culms densely tufted, extremely slender, filiform, 3–9 in. high, leafy towards the base. Leaves usually much exceeding the culms, very slender, filiform, $1⁄50$–$1⁄30$ in. broad; margins involute, scabrid. Spike ½–1½ in. long, extremely slender, linear, lax, $1⁄15$–$1⁄10$ in. broad; bract filiform, exceeding the spike. Glumes oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, membranous, pale, equalling the utricles or nearly so. Utricles ⅛–⅙ in. long, lanceolate, acuminate, smooth and glabrous, faintly nerved; bristle twice as long as the utricle.—''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 310; C. B. Clarke in Journ. Linn. Soc.'' xx. 391. U. debilior, ''F. Muell. Fragm. Phyt. Austral.'' viii. 151; ''Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 435.

Perennial herbs. Culms erect, more or less trigonous or rarely terete, often scabrid on the angles. Leaves mostly radical, grass-like, usually scabrid on the margins and keel. Spikelets unisexual or bisexual, rarely diœcious, solitary or more commonly arranged in clusters or spikes, racemes or panicles, all androgynous or the upper male with rarely a few female flowers at the top or base, the lower female often with a few male flowers at the base or top. Glumes imbricate all round the axis. Male flowers of 3 stamens, without perianth or hypogynous bristles. Female flowers consisting of a compressed or trigonous ovary, included in a flask-shaped or urceolate 2-toothed organ called the utricle or perigynium; style-branches 2 or 3, long, filiform, protruding beyond the utricle. Nut lenticular or plano-convex or trigonous, enclosed in the persistent more or less enlarged utricle.