512 Mr. J. E. BricuzNo's Observations 
Angl. Toap Rusu. Toad Grass. Rush Grass. 
Habitat in humidis et aquosis. 
Ann. June, July, August. 
Root fibrous. Stems from an inch to a foot high, numerous, di- 
chotomous, upright, cylindrical, smooth, striated, leafy. Leaves 
linear, channelled, acute, dilated at the base, not jointed. 
Flowers solitary, rarely in pairs, sessile, erect, growing in some- 
what of a spike on the terminating branches. Calyz-leaflets se- 
taceous, acuminate, with the keel green and the remainder 
scariose. Bractes ovate, scariose. Capsules elliptical, rather ob- 
tuse, shorter by half than the calyx. Seeds very numerous. 
The solitary flowers and long silky calyx sufficiently mark the 
character of this species. Like others of its congeners, it is occa- 
sionally gemmiparous. It is subject to great variation in size, 
owing to the soil in which it grows. Sometimes it may be ob- 
served on a sandy coast not an inch high, with a capsule not 
quite obtuse; at other times, in a richer soil, where water has stood 
during the winter, it may be seen shooting into a long simple culm 
teeda a foot in height. The var. @ is thus described by Dil- - 
lenius: * Priori simili (?. e. the common one), sed multo minus, et 
minus ramosum, coloris plerumque rubentis : florendi etiam tem- 
pore differt, nam mensis et sesquimensis spatio illud antecedere 
solet." I could never perceive that it was worth much attention. 
The old botanists, from whom Linnæus adopted his trivial name, 
imagined some affinity to exist between this species and the toad, 
because this animal inhabits similar places. A seedling plant is 
figured in Rose's Elements of Botany, A ppendia, t. 2. f. 5. A. and B. 
The Juncus gracilis, published in Eng. Bot. xxxi. 2174., has an 
inflorescence and fructification the most like this, but that has 
broader and emarginate valves to the fruit. 
11. Juncus 
