North Island: Wet swamps and margins of lakes, not uncommon. South Island: Nelson—Takaka, Kirk! Canterbury, Armstrong. Westland—Okarito, A. Hamilton! Southland—Bluff Island, Lyall. Stewart Island: Head of Paterson's Inlet, Petrie! Sea-level to 1500 ft. December—February.
An abundant Australian and Tasmanian plant, and very closely allied to the widely diffused E. plantaginea, R. Br.
2. E. neo-zealandica, C. B. Clarke ex T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvi. (1894) 260.—Rhizome slender, creeping, 1—3 in. long. Stems shore, 1—2½ in. high, striate; sheath membranous, mouth oblique. Spikelet solitary, terminal, ⅙–¼ in. long, broadly ovoid, much wider than the stem. 4–8-flowered. Glumes broadly ovate, concave, obtuse, red-brown with a paler centre and scarious margins. Hypogynous bristles wanting. Stamens 3. Style with 2 linear arms and a very small swollen base. Nuc obovoid, biconvex, smooth, pale-brown.
North Island: Auckland—Sand-dunes between Cape Maria van Diemen and Ahipara, T.F.C. South Island: Nelson—Cape Farewell, Kirk!
A curious little species, belonging to the section Eleogenus, characterized by the spikelets broader than the slender stems, membranous glumes, and 2-fid style. Mr. Clarke remarks that it approaches the section Isolepis of Scirpus in the absence of hypogynous bristles and the reduced size of the swollen base of the style.
3. E. acicularis, R. Br. Prodr. 224.—Rhizome very slender, almost filiform, creeping, stoloniferous. Stems numerous, tufted, extremely slender, capillary, 2–6 in. high; sheaths membranous, acute. Spikelet small, slender, ⅛–⅕ in. long, compressed, pale to dark-brown. 3–6-flowered. Glumes ovate, obtuse, membranous, brown with a greenish or pale centre and narrow scarious margins. Hypogynous bristles 2–4, short, deciduous. Style-branches 3; style-base small, conic, depressed. Nut small, pale, obovoid-oblong, longitudinally ribbed and with minute transverse striae between the ribs.—Kunth, Enum. ii. 141; C. B. Clarke in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. 628.
South Island: Otago—Lake Te Anau, Petrie! (No. 1647).
I have seen no specimens but Mr. Petrie's, which are in young flower only. Mr. C. B. Clarke, who has examined them, states that he is satisfied that they belong to the small group consisting of E. acicularis and a few very closely allied species, and most probably to E. acicularis itself, which is an almost cosmopolitan plant, although not yet recorded from Australia.
4. E. acuta, R. Br. Prodr. 224.—Rhizome creeping. Stems numerous, tufted, 4–18 in. high, rather stout or slender, striate; sheath closely appressed to the stem, with a horizontally truncate mouth, the margin of which is thickened and usually dark- coloured, with a small erect mucro or rudimentary lamina on one side.
