different, being nearer to some states of C. testacea, the leaves are shorter and broader and more coriaceous, the spikelets are fewer in number and shorter and broader, the terminal male one being often clavate, and the utricles are conspicuously nerved on both faces.
27. C. lucida, Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 283.—Densely tufted, usually forming large tussocks. Culms very slender, leafy, smooth or slightly scabrid above, in the flowering stage 12–24 in. high and usually overtopped by the leaves, in fruit often but not invariably elongating and becoming prostrate, sometimes reaching a length of 4 or 5 ft. or even more. Leaves numerous, spreading or drooping at the tips, narrow, 115–18 in. broad, keeled; margms and keel sharply scabrid. Spikelets 4–8, narrow, erect, cylindric, ½–2 in. long, pale-brown to dark-brown; upper 1–3 male, very slender, unequal in length, close together; remainder female but occasionally with a few male flowers below or rarely at the top, almost sessile or on peduncles of varying length, usually rather distant, the lowermost often remote and occasionally compound at the base; bracts very long and leafy. Glumes broadly ovate, acute or obtuse, rarely very shortly emarginate, cuspidate with a short hispid awn, pale or dark chestnut-brown with a pale keel. Utricle about as long as the glume, elliptic-ovoid, unequally biconvex, smooth or obscurely nerved on the rounded face, shining, from purplish-black to pale-brown; margins smooth; beak short, acutely bidentate. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, biconvex.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 314; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 432. C. flagellifera, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 342.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: From the North Cape southwards, abundant. Sea-level to 3000 ft. October–January.
A well-known species, easily distinguished by the slender culms, narrow keeled leaves, distant long and narrow spikelets, usually entire glumes, and turgid smooth and polished utricles.
28. C. Buchanani, Berggr. in Journ. Bot. xviii. (1880) 104.—Densely tufted, usually reddish-purple, rarely whitish-green. Culms closely packed, slender, strict, erect, 1–2 ft. high, quite smooth. Leaves equalling the culms or longer than them, narrow, strict, semiterete, grooved on the convex face, 120–112 in. broad; margins scabrid. Spikelets 4–6, linear-oblong, erect, cylindric, ½–1½ in. long, remote or the upper approximate, pale whitish-green; terminal 1 or rarely 2 male, very slender; remainder female, usually with a few male flowers below, sessile or the lowest shortly pedunculate; bracts long and leafy. Glumes longer than the utricles, broadly ovate with a long hispid awn, pale, membranous; margins lacerate. Utricle elliptic, plano-convex, smooth or faintly nerved on the convex face, spotted with dark-purple; margins ciliate-serrate above; beak rather long, deeply
