on the Genus Juncus of Linneus. 297 
descriptions in needless obscurity; and especially since no dif- 
ference of organization is apparent among any of these species. 
Why the panicle of J. maritimus should be described as terminal, 
and that of conglomeratus as lateral, is irreconcileable with any 
theory of inflorescence which the Linnean terms countenance. If 
the elongation beyond the panicle be an involucral leaf in the one, 
it ought to hold good in the whole of the leafless subdivision, 
The more consistent and more natural method seems to be, to 
describe the panicle as lateral, where a similar structure of the 
stem is continued above the panicle as exists below it; and to 
denominate the spinous support at the base a bracte. Its ana- 
logy to a similar production in J. bulbosus, Linn., squarrosus, tri- 
Jidus, and many of the Scirpi and Eriophora, where the support is 
indisputably called a bracte, justifies the opinion. The mem- 
branous scales at the base of the flowers are for convenience 
. called flower-scales. i 
. Specimens of the plants* here described accompany this Me- 
moir. ~ ! 
JUNCUS. 
R vs n. 
Cal. hexaphyllus. Cor. nulla. Caps. supera, trivalvis, trilocula- 
ris: loculamenta polysperma. 
* Culmo nudo. 
1: Juncus ACUTUS. | . | 
Juncus culmo nudo pungente, paniculá laterali, bracteá spinosa, 
capsulis mucronatis subrotundis calyce duplo longioribus. 
J. culmo nudo, panicula terminali, involucro diphyllo spinoso, 
capsula subrotunda acuta, petalis duplo longiore. Rostkov 
Monograph. 14. ; 
* These are deposited in te Museum of the Linnean Society. ME 
J. culmo 
