48. C. flava, Linn. Sp. Plant. 975.—Rhizome short, tufted. Culms tufted, smooth, trigonous with the angles somewhat acute, leafy, 2–8 in. high. Leaves usually longer than the culms in New Zealand specimens, yellow-green when dry, flat, 115–18 broad, spreading or recurved; margins slightly scabrid. Spikelets 3–8, yellow-green, closely approximate or rarely the lowest remote; terminal one (rarely two) male, slender, ¼–¾ in. long; remainder all female but usually with a few male flowers at the top, ovoid or roundish, ¼–½ in. long, squarrose, sessile or the lowest sometimes peduncled; bracts long, leafy, spreading. Glumes ovate, obtuse, membranous; margins pale, sometimes hyaline. Utricles much exceeding the glumes, spreading or deflexed, ovoid, trigonous, inflated, strongly ribbed, pale yellow-green, suddenly narrowed into a long slender scabrid 2-toothed beak. Styles 3. Nut obovoid, trigonous.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 444; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 439. C. cataractæ, R. Br. Prodr. 242; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 101, t. 151; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 315; Boott, Ill. Car. iv. t. 204. C. novæ-seelandiæ, Boeck. in Flora (1878), 169.
South Island: Mountain districts from Nelson to Foveaux Strait. Usually from 1500 to 3500 ft., but descends to sea-level in several scattered localities. December–February.
Found also in Australia, Tasmania, and Chili in the Southern Hemisphere, and very widely distributed in the north temperate zone. New Zealand specimens have a smaller utricle than in typical C. flava, and the beak is shorter. They thus approach the var. Œderi, which is often kept as a distinct species.
49. C. vaccilans, Sol. ex Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 285.—Culms tufted, slender, weak, triquetrous with the angles scabrid, leafy, 10–18 in. high. Leaves longer or shorter than the culms, ⅛–¼ in. broad, flat or keeled towards the base, striate, usually with a conspicuous nerve on each side of the stout midrib; margins and midrib beneath sharply scabrid. Spikelets 4–9, 1–3 in. long, about ⅛ in. broad, bright red-brown; terminal 1–3 male, sometimes mixed with a few female flowers; remainder female, usually with a few male flowers at the base, the two or three lower ones remote, nodding, on long filiform peduncles, the upper ones closer together and on shorter stalks or subsessile; bracts long, leafy. Glumes ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, entire, gradually narrowed into a short or rather long awn, red-brown; margins paler, often lacerate. Utricles usually longer than the glumes, stipitate, fusiform, triquetrous, conspicuously costate-nerved, red-brown, narrowed into a long slender beak with 2 acute teeth. Styles 3. Nut elliptic-oblong, whitish, trigonous.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 317; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 440. C. spinirostris, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 335.
North Island: Not uncommon on declivities in dry woods, especially near the sea. October–November.
