Styles 3. Nut ovoid, trigonous.—Boott, Ill. Gar. i. 61, t. 175; C. Neesiana, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 316; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 438 (not of Endl.).
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Not uncommon from Ahipara and Mongonui southwards, usually in woods. Sea-level to 2000 ft. October–January.
Allied to C. dissita, from which it differs in the taller and more slender habit, in the male spikelets usually more than one, and in the longer and narrower female spikelets, the 2 or 3 lower of which are often compound. The utricles are also rather smaller, and less conspicuously nerved than in C. dissita. In my Revision of the New Zealand species I followed Sir J. D. Hooker in uniting it with the Norfolk Island C. Neesiana; but since then I have obtained specimens of that species, and find it to differ so much in leaves, spikelets, and utricles that I can entertain no doubt as to the distinctness of the two plants.
42. C. ventosa, C. B. Clarke MS. in Herb. Kew.—Tall, stout, robust, leaves broad. Inflorescence 12–14 in. long. Spikelets 8, ¾–3 in. long, pale; terminal 2–3 male, slender; remainder all female, short-peduncled, erect, not pendulous. Utricles elliptic-oblong, trigonous, narrowed at both ends, stramineous, 12-nerved, glabrous; beak very short. Nut blackish, elliptic-oblong, trigonous.
Chatham Islands (?): Travers in Herb. Kew.
This is quite unknown to me, and the above brief diagnosis has been framed from notes kindly supplied by Mr. C. B. Clarke, who remarks that it is nearest to the true C. Neesiana (of Norfolk Island), but differs in the larger and narrower utricles.
43. C. longiculmis, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 363.—Tall, densely tufted. Culms terete or nearly so, smooth, 2–3 ft. high or more, leafy at the base. Leaves shorter than the culms or equalling them, pale-green, sheathing at the base, ⅙–⅕ in. broad, flat or keeled, striate; margins slightly scabrid above. Spikelets 5–7, the lowermost usually distant, the remainder approximate; terminal one male, slender, 1–2 in. long, sometimes with a smaller one near its base; remainder all female, usually with a few male flowers at the base, rarely at the top, very large and stout, ¾–1½ in. long, ⅓–½ in. broad, pale-brown, sessile or the lowest shortly peduneled; bracts leafy, far exceeding the inflorescence. Glumes broadly ovate, membranous, pale chestnut-brown, midrib produced into a stout hispid awn. Utricle equalling the glumes, somewhat stipitate, ovoid, biconvex, nerved, pale- or dark-brown, suddenly contracted into a rather long and stout bidentate beak; margins smooth. Styles 3. Nut trigonous.—Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. (1884) 438.
Stewart Island: Paterson's Inlet, Petrie! G. M. Thomson! Glory Cove, Kirk!
A very distinct species, perhaps nearest to C. litorosa, but much larger in all its parts.
