bifid. Styles 2. Nut obovoid-oblong, plano-convex.—Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 290; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 431. C. tenax, Berggr. in Minneskr. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund. (1877) 27, t. 7, f. 1–7 (not of Chapm.).
South Island: Abundant in hilly and mountainous districts throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft. December–January.
The chief characters of this species are the strict erect habit, semiterete leaves, pale-coloured glumes, and elliptic plano-convex utricles, the margins of which are serrate above. The reddish-purple colour, which is often constant through large districts, is also seen in C. comans, G. Petriei, C. uncifolia, and others. It probably occurs in the mountainous centre of the North Island, but I have seen no specimens from thence.
29. C. cirrhosa, Berggr. in Minneskr. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund. (1877) 29, t.7, f. 27–34.—A dwarf species forming compact glaucous-green or reddish tufts. Culms very short, densely packed, 1–1½ in. high, leafy throughout. Leaves longer than the culms, narrow, flat or almost plano-convex, grooved; tips obtuse, curled and twisted when dry; margins scabrid. Spikelets 4–5, approximate and almost concealed by the leaves, ⅕–⅓ in. long; terminal one male, slender; remainder all female, with or without a few male flowers below, all sessile or the lowest very shortly peduncled; bracts leafy, far exceeding the spikelets. Glumes ovate-lanceolate, entire, cuspidate, whitish-green with a darker midrib. Utricle about equalling the glumes, elliptic-ovoid, plano-convex, nerved, pale, narrowed into a rather long acutely bidentate beak; margins entire or minutely denticulate. Styles 2. Nut lenticular.—Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 435.
Var. lutescens, Kukenthal, MS.—Culms taller, 2–4 in. high. Spikelets longer and further apart, the lowest one sometimes remote. Utricle narrow-elliptic; beak longer.
South Island: Canterbury—Upper Waimakariri and Lake Lyndon, Berggren! Enys! Kirk! Cockayne, T.F.C. December–February.
A very peculiar little plant.
30. C. rubicunda, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 353.—Forming small reddish-brown tufts. Culms short, strict, erect, quite smooth, leafy, 2–4 in. high. Leaves equalling the culms or longer than them, narrow, 120–115 in. broad, convex at the back, concave in front, grooved; tips curled and twisted when dry; margins smooth. Spikelets 4–5, all closely approximate and sessile, or the lowest remote and shortly pedunculate, short, ⅕–¼ in. long; terminal one male; remainder female; bracts long, leafy. Glumes broadly ovate, entire, shortly cuspidate, pale. Utricle equalling the glumes, ovoid or elliptic-ovoid, unequally biconvex, smooth or faintly nerved, reddish-brown; margins smooth, even; beak very short, minutely bidentate. Styles 2. Nut lenticular.—C. novæ-zealandiæ, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxv. (1893) 273 (not of Boeckel.).
