Seeds smaller and narrower than in J. novæ-zealandiæ.—Buchen. Monog. Junc. 290. J. capillaceus, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 264; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 291; Fl. Tasm. ii. 65, t. 134b; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 132 (not of Lamarck).
North and South Islands: Swampy places from the Bay of Plenty southwards, not so common as J. novæ-zealandiæ. Sea-level to 4000 ft. December–March.
I suspect that this will prove to be a variety of J. novæ-zealandiæ, from which there is little to separate it, except the smaller paler-coloured flowers and smaller and narrower capsule, which is often scarcely longer than the perianth. I have several states which appear to be quite intermediate. It is also found in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania.
3. LUZULA, D.C.
Perennial herbs, usually tufted. Leaves grass-like, mostly radical, more or less ciliate with long flexuous white hairs. Flowers small, crowded in small fascicles or placed singly, the fascicles or single flowers arranged in an irregularly branched simple or compound umbel or cyme, sometimes contracted into a globose or spiciform head, each flower with a bract and 2 bracteoles. Perianth-segments 6, glumaceous, distinct. Stamens 6, hypogynous or the 3 inner attached to the base of the segments; filaments filiform; anthers oblong or linear. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; style filiform, with 3 long stigmatic lobes; ovules 3, erect from a short basal placenta. Capsule 3-valved. Seeds 3, or fewer by abortion, globose or ovoid; testa minutely reticulated.
Species variously estimated from 30 to 50, most plentiful in the temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere, also found on the mountains of the tropics. The Australian and New Zealand species are all vtry near to the protean L. campestris, and are so highly variable as to present an almost inextricable series of closely allied forms.
| * Small, 1–2 in. high, forming compact cushion-shaped masses. | |
| Stems much shorter than the leaves and concealed by them. Flowers pale | 1. L. Colensoi. |
| Stems about equalling the leaves. Inflorescence simple. Perianth-segments lanceolate, acute | 2. L. micrantha. |
| Stems exceeding the leaves. Inflorescence usually simple. Perianth-segments subulate, acuminate, dark-chestnut with very narrow margins | 3. L. pumila. |
| Stems exceeding the leaves. Inflorescence usually compound. Perianth-segments ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, with broad white margins | 4. L. Cheesemanii. |
| ** Stems often densely tufted but never forming cushion-shaped masses. | |
| Small, slender, 1–4 in. high. Inflorescence a terminal solitary 3–8-flowered head. Stamens 3 | 5. L. leptophylla. |
| Variable in size, 4–18 in. Leaf-tip obtuse, often callous. Inflorescence lax or contracted, many-flowered | 6. L. campestris. |
| Usually from 6 to 14 in. Leaf-tip subulate, acute. Inflorescence of dense spikes congested into a pyramidal head | 7. L. racemosa. |
