thin, rigid, tip acute. Perianth-segments 6, very narrow-linear, acute. Stamens 3; anthers hnear-oblong. Female spikelets soHtary within the uppermost sheaths, 1–3-flowered. Perianth-segments 6 or 4, very small, the inner not much longer than the ovary, broadly ovate, thin and hyaline. Style-branches 3. Nut broadly ovoid, terete, with a thick and swollen base.—Calorophus elongatus, Lab. Pl. Nov. Holl. ii. 78, t. 228 (in part); Hook. f. Fl Nov. Zel. i. 267; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 297.
Var. minor, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 297.—Much smaller and more slender, sometimes only a few inches high. Male spikelet solitary, 2–3-flowered; female usually 1-flowered.—Calorophus minor, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 267.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: The typical form not uncommon in lowland swamps in the North Island, from the North Cape southwards; var. minor abundant in mountain districts throughout. Sea-level to 4500 ft. November–March.
Also an abundant Australian and Tasmanian plant. The var. minor passes insensibly into the ordinary form.
Order XCI. CYPERACEÆ.
Grassy or rush-like herbs, usually perennial. Stems solid or rarely slightly hollow, often trigonous, sometimes compressed or terete. Leaves alternate, mostly radical, few or many, sometimes wanting or reduced to sheathing scales; sheaths closed, not split to the base. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, minute, solitary and sessile in the axils of small imbricated bracts (glumes), which are aggregated into few- or many-flowered (rarely 1-flowered) spikelets. Spikelets either solitary and terminal, or arranged in spikes, racemes, panicles, or clusters. Glumes rigid or scarious or membranous, concave, distichous or imbricated all round, persistent or deciduous, 1 or 2 (rarely more) at the base of each spikelet empty. Perianth wanting or represented by few hypogynous bristles or scales. Stamens 1–3, rarely 4–6, hypogynous; filaments linear, flat, often elongating after flowering; anthers usually exserted from the spikelet and pendulous, linear, basifixed, 2-celled. Ovary entire, 1-celled, in Carex and its allies enclosed in a peculiar flask-shaped organ called the utricle or perigynium formed of 1 or 2 modified bracteoles; style short or long, 2–3-cleft, divisions stigraatie on the inner side; ovule solitary, basal, erect, anatropous. Fruit a small indehiscent nut (in Carex enclosed in the utricle), lenticular or compressed or more often trigonous. Seed erect; testa membranous; albumen farinaceous; embryo minute, at the very base of the albumen.
