Spikelet variable in length, ¼–¾ in. or more, linear-oblong, cylindric, obtuse or subacute, mauy-flowered. Glumes broadly ovate, obtuse, membranous, concave, brown with usually a pale line down the centre; margins broad, scarious. Hypogynous scales 4–8, exceeding the nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut broadly obovoid, biconvex, smooth or very minutely pitted, brown, crowned by the small conic style-base.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 745; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 294 (Heleocharis). E. gracilis (excl. var. b and y), Hook.f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 270; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 301 (not of R. Br.). E. ambigua, Kirk ex Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. vi. (1874) 225.
North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: Abundant in wet places from the North Cape to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 2000 ft. November–March.
Also plentiful in Australia, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island.
5. E. Cunninghamii, Boeck. in Flora, xii. (1858) 412 (Heleocharis).—Rhizome long, creeping, scaly, stout or slender, dark redbrown or almost black. Stems many from the rhizome, variable in length. 3–15 in., very slender, sometimes almost filiform, striate; sheath membranous, with a thin oblique mouth. Spikelet small, short, ⅛—¼ in. long, broadly ovoid, subacute, 5–20-flowered. Glumes broadly oblong, obtuse, membranous, usually pale but often stained with red-brown; margins broad, scarious. Hypogynous bristles 4–8, exceeding the nut. Style-branches 3. Nut broadly obovoid, plano-convex or obscurely trigonous, smooth, pale yellowish-brown, crowned by the small pyramidal style-base, which is rather broader than the top of the nut.—Linnæa, xxxvi. (1869–70) 427. E. gracilis, var. gracillima and var. radicans, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 270; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 301 (not of R. Br.). E. gracillima, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 745. Heleocharis Hookeri, Boeck. in Linnæa, xxxvi. (1869–70) 430. Isolepis acicularis, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 103 (not of R. Br.).
North and South Islands.—Wet places from the North Cape to Foveaux Strait, but often local in the South Island. Sea-level to 2000 ft. November–March.
Hooker's two varieties gracillima and radicans, originally published as forms of the Australian E. gracilis, only differ in size and degree of development, radicans being clearly a depauperated state. In many localities they can be seen to merge into one another. Boeckeler, probably working upon scanty herbarium material, treated them as distinct species, publishing his E. Cunninghamii, which answers to var. radicans, in 1858, and E. Hookeri, which is equivalent to var. gracillima, in 1869. E. Cunninghamii has several years' priority over Hooker's gracillima, which was not published until 1867, but it is unfortunate that it was not originally applied to what must be considered the type of the species, Hooker's var. gracillima.
5. FIMBRISTYLIS, Vahl.
Annual or perennial tufted herbs, usually of small or medium size. Leaves from near the base of the stem, grassy or filiform. Inflorescence a terminal simple or compound umbel, or reduced to a
