ENGELMANN — NORTH AM. SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 469 



species. Michaux, who no doubt had seen a great deal of it 

 in the southeastern States, had united all under his J. poly- 

 cephahis, in which he was followed by Pursh as well as by 

 Meyer; but the earlier name of Lamarck must take prece- 

 dence, though it seems to refer only to a single form, a speci- 

 men of which, brought by Frazer from South Carolina, is still 

 preserved in his herbarium, now in the hands of Prof. J. Roe- 

 per of Rostock. This proves to be var. macrostemon (the 

 form with longer exterior sepals), as has already been stated 

 by Meyer (Linn, 3, 370). The older authors appear to have 

 confounded it with J. nodosus, which latter Michaux does 

 not seem to have known or distinguished, and which, on the 

 other hand, is taken by Hooker in Flor. Bor. Am. for /. poly- 

 cephalus. 



All the forms of this species have compact, globose, mostly 

 greenish heads, turning straw-color or light brown at maturi- 

 ty, on rigid or stout stems, rising, at least in var. a and /^, from 

 thick white horizontal rhizomas ; those of var. y I have never 

 seen in herbarium specimens; sheaths of the leaves, especially 

 in a and /3, loose and open ; stamens 3, very rarely, in var. a, 

 4 or 5 in number; seeds, though differing much in form and 

 size (from 0.2 to over 0.3 line long, and from an elongate fusi- 

 form to a thick ovate shape), with 5 or 6, very rarely 7, 

 ribs on one side, and smooth or delicately marked area?; these 

 marks consist of one or a few perpendicular lines, sometimes 

 crossed by a couple of horizontal ones. — Our southern bot- 

 anists will have to find out whether one or the other of these 

 forms may not justly claim to be considered as a distinct 

 species. 



Var. a is readily recognized by its wiry stem 1-2 feet high, 

 its strictly erect panicle of a few (5-9, rarely single) small 

 heads, 3^-4 lines in diameter, and composed of 15-30-40 

 flowers,* the stamens of which are as long as the sepals, the 

 small anthers often protruding from between their tips ; flowers 

 H-l£ lines long; seeds 0.22-0.28 line long, their length being 

 equal to 2-2§ diameters. The form with long protruding 

 styles has in flower a very curious aspect; in fruit it is often 

 of a deeper brown than any other variety, and its capsules are 

 not regularly subulate, as we find them in all other forms of 

 this species, but oblong and rostrate, almost bottle-shaped. 

 Another peculiarity of it is, that its heads are often lobed, as 

 already remarked by Dr. Chapman, i. e. composed of a num- 

 ber (3-5-7) of smaller heads, the axillary productions of the 

 lowest bracts of the primary head. Sometimes the panicles 

 become larger, 6 inches or more in length, and composed of 

 numerous heads; in some southern, especially Texan, speci- 



* Muhlenberg describes his /. echinatus with 9-flowered heads, and La- 

 marck his J. scirpoides with heads bearing 12-18 flowers. 



