HEXANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Juncus. 159 



M'hat capitate, greenish, with a pair of close hracteas to 

 each. Caps, often dark-coloured, and highly polished. 



* Leaves none. 



] . J. acuhis. Great Sharp Sea Rush. 



Stem naked, sharp-pointed. Panicle aggregate, near the 



summit. Bractea spinous. Capsule twice as long as the 



calyx, roundish, with a blunt point. 



J. acutus. Lbm.Sp.PlA&Z. WilULv.2.204. Fl.Br.374. Engl. 



Bot. V. 23. t. 1614. Bicheno Tr. of L. Soc. v. 12.297. Lam. 



Diet, v.3.264. 

 J. acutus, capitulis Sorghi. Bauh. Pin. 11. Prodr. 21. f. Theatr. 



1 73. /. Rail Syn. 43 1 . Stheuchz. Agr. 338. 

 J.pungens, sive J.'acutus capitulis Sorghi. Bauh. Hist. r. 2.520./, 



bad. Moris, v. 3. 232. sect. 8. t. 10./. 15, good. 

 J. maritimus, Sorghi panicula utriculata. Barrel. Ic. f. 203./. 2. 



On the sea coast, in deep sand. 



On the coast of Merionethshire, plentifully. Ray. At Brancaster, 

 Norfolk. Mr. Crowe. Holker, Lancashire. Mr. Woodward. In- 

 stow, Devonshire 5 and on Braunton Burrows, plentifully. 

 Bishop of Carlisle. In the county of Wicklow, Ireland. Dr. Wade. 



Perennial, July. 



Root fibrous, densely tufted, running deep into the sand. Stems 3 

 or 4 feet high, (in Ireland 7 or 8 feet, according to Dr. Wade,) 

 erect, straight, simple, round, smooth, leafless, stiff and very 

 strong, with a sharp rigid point, turned somewhat aside by the 

 panicle, and rising a little above it. Leaves none, though the 

 barren stems have been taken for such. Panicle compound, and 

 repeatedly subdivided, from a lateral sheathing cleft, near the 

 top of each stem, corymbose, many-flowered; its branches 

 smooth, obtusely compressed. Bractea resembling the point of 

 the stem, which embraces it at the bottom, but smaller, and 

 more spreading ; inner ones several, still smaller, tapering, with 

 membranous points. Fl. partly capitate. Three inner calyx- 

 leaves obtuse. S<am. broad and short. Sfj/Ze scarcely any. Caps. 

 broadly ovate, hard, brown, sharp-pointed, with 3 blunt angles, 

 and in the upper part as many intermediate depressions ; its 

 lower half invested with the withered calyx. Seeds ovate, pellu- 

 cid ; tunic unilateral, elongated at each end. 

 I readily concur with Mr. Bicheno in considering the inflorescence 

 as lateral in all this tribe of Junci; which is justified by analogy, 

 though it may seem paradoxical, in this species and the next. 

 Nor is the question without difficulty, as all who ever thought 

 on the subject have long ago perceived. 



2. J. maritimus. Lesser Sharp Sea Rush. 



Stem naked, sharp-pointed. Panicle proliferous, near the 



