at the base, sessile or the lowest very shortly pedunculate; bracts long and leafy. Glumes broadly ovoid, pale-coloured, membranous, shortly bifid, midrib produced into a long or short awn usually exceeding the utricles; margins lacerate. Utricle elliptic-ovoid, unequally biconvex, smooth, turgid, gradually narrowed into a rather long acutely bidentate beak; margins entire. Styles 3. Nut trigonous.
South Island: Otago—Milford Sound, Kirk!
Specimens of this collected by Mr. Kirk are in my own and in the Kew Herbarium, and I have adopted Mr. Clarke's manuscript name for it. It is evidently very close to C. comans var. stricta, principally differing in the closely aggregated apikelets and broader utricles, which are not serrate above.
39. C. litorosa, Bailey in Memoirs Torrey Club (1889) 72.—Pale-green, forming compact tufts. Culms densely packed, slender, erect, terete, grooved, quite smooth, leafy, 9–24 in. high. Leaves as long or longer than the culms, sheathing at the base, narrow, 130–112 in. broad, deeply grooved, flat or concave in front, convex behind, narrowed into long filiform points; margins slightly serrate above. Spikelets 3–5, the lowermost often remote, the others closely placed or a little distant, oblong-ovate, ¼–¾ in. long; terminal one male, slender; remainder all female, usually with male flowers either above or below, sessile or the lowermost shortly pedunculate; bracts very long and leafy. Glumes ovate, acuminate with a short or long awn, membranous, pale-brown; margins often lacerate. Utricles as long or rather longer than the glumes, broadly ovoid, turgid, biconvex, smooth or obscurely nerved, reddish-brown; margins smooth; beak short and stout, with 2 divergent teeth. Styles 3. Nut obovoid, trigonous.—Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 415. C. littoralis, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 358; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 437 (not of Schwein.). C. australis, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvi. (1894) 262 (not of Boeckel.).
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Not uncommon in brackishwater marshes from the Kaipara Harbour southwards. October–January.
Distinguished from C. comans by the larger size and stouter habit, broader spikelets, and especially by the broader and more turgid biconvex utricles, with entire margins and smooth or very obscurely nerved faces. The Otago and Stewart Island specimens have rather larger spikelets, with male flowers at the base of the female spikelets, whereas they are usually at the top in northern specimens.
40. C. dissita, Sol. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 284.—Densely tufted. Culms slender, smooth, leafy, 1–2½ ft. high. Leaves longer or shorter than the culms, dark-green, flat, broad, grassy, deeply grooved, ⅛–¼ in. diam.; margins scabrid above. Spikelets 4–8, distant, ⅓–1 in. long, ¼–⅓ in. broad, dark-brown; terminal one male, slender, rarely with 1 or 2 much smaller ones near its
