Glumes oblong or oblong-ovate, tapering upwards, acute or obtuse, not mucronate or the mucro very short and inconspicuous, dark red-brown, unicolorous or with a very narrow pale stripe down the centre. Utricle equalling the glume or barely exceeding it, ovate, much compressed, nerved, narrowed into a short minutely 2-toothed beak. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, lenticular.
South Island: Nelson—Mount Arthur Plateau, Wairau Valley, Hanmer Plains, T.F.C. Canterbury—Sinclair and Haast, n. 138 in Herb. Kew; Broken River, Lake Tekapo, T.F.C. Westland—Okarito, A. Hamilton! Otago—Hector and Buchanan, Petrie! 1000–3000 ft. December–February.
I am indebted to Mr. C. B. Clarke for supplying me with information respecting this, and for identifying some of my specimens. It appears to be a somewhat critical species, differing from depauperated states of C. ternaria in the basal leaf-sheaths not being transversely fibrillose, in the much fewer erect spikelets, and barely awned glumes, &c. From C. Gaudichaudiana, large states of which approach it in habit, it is removed by the broader harsher leaves, the spikelets often stalked and geminate, the longer glumes not rounded at the tip, and by the utricle not being granular-papillose.
22. C. Raoulii, Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 283.—Yellowish-green or dark-green, laxly tufted, often spreading at the base. Culms rather stout, triquetrous, scabrid on the angles, 9–18 in. high. Leaves longer than the culms, flat, broad, coriaceous, grooved, ⅙–¼ in. broad, scabrid on the margins and midrib beneath. Spikelets 4–8, all female but usually with a few male flowers below, the uppermost generally with more male flowers below, stout, erect, all approximate and sessile, or less crowded with the lowest one remote and pedunculate, green or greenish-brown, ½–1 in. long, ¼ in. broad; bracts long and leafy. Glumes broadly ovate, thin and membranous, pale-brown, bifid; midrib stout, produced into a short or long hispid awn. Utricle broader and longer than the glumes, elliptic, unequally biconvex, strongly nerved, narrowed into a stout 2-toothed beak; margins serrate above or almost even. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, lenticular.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 314; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 433. C. Goyeni, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 363.
South Island: Nelson—Graham River, Wangapeka River, Mount Owen, Jollie's Pass, T.F.C; Fowler's Pass, Kirk! Marlborough—Mount Fyffe, Kirk! Canterbury—Akaroa, Raoul; Southern Alps, Sinclair and Haast; Mount Torlesse, Kirk! Kowai River, Cockayne! Broken River, Upper Waimakariri, Lake Tekapo, Hooker Valley, T.F.C. Otago—Lake Wakatipu, Lake Wanaka, Mount Ida, Buchanan! Petrie! 200–3000 ft. December–February.
A distinct species, easily recognised by the broad flat leaves, by the terminal spikelet being always partly female, and by the strongly nerved elliptic utricles, usually serrate above. Mr. Clarke informs me that all Raoul's specimens at Kew have the utricles hairy on the upper half, but I have seen no specimens showing this peculiarity.
