12. C. inversa, R. Br. Prodr. 242.—Rhizomes long, creeping, often matted and forming a continuous sward. Culms numerous, weak, slender, usually erect, variable in height, 4–18 in., smooth, striate, obtusely trigonous, leafy towards the base. Leaves shorter than the culms, flat or keeled, grassy, 125–116 in. broad; margins usually smooth. Spikelets 2–5, crowded into a terminal cluster or spike, rarely a little remote, androgynous, pale-green, ovoid, ¼–⅓ in. long; bracts to the 2 or 3 lower ones long and leafy, far overtopping the inflorescence. Glumes ovate, acuminate or cuspidate, membranous, with a narrow green keel and pale almost hyaline margins. Male flowers at the base of the spikelets, usually few, sometimes absent. Utricle compressed, ovate, plano-convex, narrowed into a rather long beak, more or less distinctly nerved on both faces; margins serrulate above; beak 2-fid. Styles 2. Nut lenticular.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 281; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 312; Boott, Ill. Gar. iv. 151, t. 488; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 425. C. smaragdina, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 398.
North and South Islands: From Mongonui southwards, not uncommon. Sea-level to 3000 ft. November–May.
Recogfiised without any difficulty by the slender grassy habit, pale spikelets male at the base, and compressed plano-convex beaked utricles. It is a common Australian plant.
13. C. resectans, heesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 413.—Forming broad depressed patches often many feet in diam. Rhizome stout, woody, creeping, much branched, clothed with the fibrous remains of the old leaf-sheaths. Culms very short, usually from ½ to 1½ in. high, rarely more, frequently almost wanting. Leaves few, sheathing the whole length of the culm and much longer than it, narrow, sometimes almost filiform, involute; margins scabrid. Spikelets 2–3 or solitary, crowded into a compact head ¼ in. long, pale-green, androgynous; bracts 2–3, very long and leafy. Glumes broadly ovate, acuminate or cuspidate; margins thin, pale; keel stout, 1–3-nerved. Male flowers 1–3 at the base of the spikelet, sometimes absent; female flowers 3–8. Utricle ovate below, plano-convex, strongly nerved, narrowed upwards into a long tapering serrate deeply bifid beak. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, plano-convex or obscurely trigonous.—C. inversa var. radicata, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 425.
South Island: Canterbury—Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, T.F.C. Otago—Common in the dry upland plains of the interior, Petrie! 500–3000 ft. December–March.
Very close to C. inversa, of which Mr. C. B. Clarke considers it to be a variety, but separated by the much smaller size and more rigid habit, wiry almost filiform leaves, short culms sheathed to the top by the leaves, and long-