Kermadec Islands: T.F.C., Miss Shakespear! North and South Islands: Not uncommon throughout. Sea-level to 2000 ft. November–January.
I have taken up this species from notes kindly supplied to me by Mr. C. B. Clarke. It has the habit and most of the characters of C. Forsteri, but the terminal spikelet is invariably largely female at the top, whereas it is wholly male in C. Forsteri. Small states approach C. Cockayniana, which often has the terminal spikelet partly female; but that species has the beak of the utricle much shorter, with two very obscure teeth. Mr. Colenso's C. sexspicata (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 342) may be the same species, and, if so, his name muse take precedence. There are no specimens in his herbarium.
52. C. Forsteri, Wahl. in Vet. Akad. Nya Handl. Stockh. (1803) 154.—Culms tufted, stout or rather slender, trigonous, grooved, scabrid above, leafy, 1½–3 ft. high. Leaves longer or shorter than the culms, broad, ⅕–⅓ in. diam., flat, harsh, striate; margins and midrib beneath sharply scabrid. Spikelets 5–10, distant, 1½–3 in. long, ¼–⅓ in. broad, green or pale ferruginous; terminal 1–3 (usually 2) male, slender; remainder all female but commonly with male flowers either above or below, the upper 2–3 sessile or nearly so, the rest pedunculate, sometimes compound; bracts very long and leafy. Glumes ovate-lanceolate, membranous, ferruginous with a pale-green centre; midrib stout, produced into a short or rather long awu. Utricles equalling or exceeding the glumes, spreading when ripe, almost sessile or very shortly stipitate, elliptic-oblong or lanceolate-oblong, trigonous, nerved; beak ½–⅗ the length of the utricle, linear, with 2 lanceolate acute teeth. Styles 3. Nut obovoid-oblong, trigonous.—Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 285; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 315 (in part); Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 440. C. recurva, Schkuhr. Riedgr. i. 120. C. debilis, Forst. Prodr. n. 550. C. punctulata, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 119, t. 21.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 2000 ft. November–January.
53. C. pseudo-cyperus, Linn. Sp. Plant. 978.—Culms tufted, stout, triquetrous, scabrid on the angles, leafy, 1–3 ft. high. Leaves often longer than the culms, flat, broad, grassy, ⅓–½ in. diam.; margins scabrid. Spikelets 3–5, rarely more, usually clustered towards the top of the stem or the lowest one remote, 1–2½ in. long, pale-green; terminal one male, rarely female at the top, slender; remainder all female, long-peduncled and nodding, or in small specimens subsessile and erect, dense-flowered; bracts long, leafy. Glumes small, greenish-white, linear-oblong, suddenly narrowed into a stout serrulate awn. Utricles usually exceeding the glumes, spreading or even reflexed when ripe, stipitate, ovate-lanceolate, trigonous, somewhat inflated, strongly ribbed, greenish; beak ⅓–½ as long as the utricle, deeply split at the apex into two
