7. C. Gunnii, Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 95, t. 148b.—Stems densely tufted, rush-like, very slender, terete, rigid and wiry, 9 in. to 3 ft. high. Leaves sometimes wholly reduced to sheathing scales at the base of the stem, but usually 1 long terete stem-like leaf with 2–3 sheaths below it; tip subulate, pungent; sheaths long, purplish-red. Panicle elongate, narrow, interrupted, 6–18 in. long; branches remote, slender, erect, the lowest sometimes 6 in. long in large specimens, in small ones reduced to 1 in.; bracts closely sheathing, with a short erect lamina. Spikelets not fascicled, distinct, sessile, 1-flowered. Glumes usually 3, lanceolate, acuminate, the 2 lowest empty; the uppermost fertile, longer and narrower than the others, and spreading in fruit; margins involute. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut pedicelled, ovoid or oblong-ovoid, smooth and shining when mature. 3-ribbed when young, tip large and tumid, pale-yellow with dark base and tip.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 304; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 407; Berggr. in Minnesk. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund. (1877) 24, t. 6, f. 6–11. C. laxiflorum, Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 95, t. 148a. Lampocarya tenax, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 277.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: From the North Cape southwards, not uncommon. Sea-level to 2500 ft. December–February.
Also in eastern Australia and Tasmania. In fruit the margins of the upper part of the flowering glume become strongly involute, firmly enclosing the 3 persistent stamens, which remain attached to the pedicel of the ripe nut. The nut is thus frequently detained swinging from the spikelet long after it has separated from the point of attachment.
8. C. junceum, R. Br. Prodr. 237.—Rhizome stout, woody, creeping, clothed with pale-brown scales. Stems tufted, rigid, erect, terete, rush-like, 1–2 ft. high. Leaves reduced to 1 long and closely appressed sheath with a minute vertically flattened lamina, below which are 1 or 2 much shorter sheaths. Panicle short, spike-like, sparingly branched, ½–1½ in. long; bract at the base very small. Spikelets red-brown, ⅙ in. long, 1–2-flowered, the lower flower alone fertile. Glumes 4–5, oblong-ovate, acute, membranous, keeled, puberulous, the 2 or 3 outer empty. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut oblong-ovoid, obscurely trigonous, dark-brown, surface rough; beak small, tumid, puberulous.—Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 95; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 305; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 408. Lepidosperma striatum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 279 (not of R. Br.). L. Colensoi, Boeck. in Linnæa, xxxviii. (1874) 328.
North and South Islands: From the North Cape to the Bluff, not uncommon, especially in the North Island, often in brackish-water swamps. Sea-level to 2000 ft. November–January.
Also throughout the greater part of Australia and in New Caledonia.
9. C. Vauthiera, C. B. Clarke, MS.—Rhizome short, stout, creeping. Stems densely tufted, rather stout, conspicuously 4-
