ENGELMANN — NORTH AM. SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 473 



reference to Gronov. Virg. 15 [leg. 152] is a mistake, in copy- 

 ing from Gronovius of Gramen junceum elatius pericarpiis ova- 

 its Jlinencanum, Pluk. aim. That this is not the type of J. 

 nodosus is clear, because it does not, like all other Gronovian 

 plants, appear in the first edition of Spec. Plant. Linnaeus' 

 annotations prove that he was considering some plant in his 

 herbarium, and not a mere quotation." The figure of Rostko- 

 vius is a very good representation of the ordinary appearance 

 of this variety. — It is by far the slenderest form, usually from 

 8-12 or 15 inches high, with 2-5 or 8 brown heads in a rather 

 compact and simple or slightly compound panicle; in the 

 Rocky Mountains a dwarf form occurs, with a filiform stem 

 3-5 inches high, bearing a single few-flowered head (J. poly- 

 cephalus, 7, Hook. 1. c); a similar variety was collected on 

 the mountains of Vermont by H. Mann, Hb. n. 72 ; Judge 

 Clinton and Dr. Bigelow, Hb. n. 73, send from the shores of 

 the northern lakes a taller form, 2-3 feet high, with a more 

 compound lighter colored panicle; and this makes a transition 

 to one which Dr. Vasey has sent from the northern border of 

 Illinois, a stout, large (nearly 2 feet high) green-headed plant, 

 with a decompound panicle of at least 30 greenish heads, each 

 composed of 25-35 flowers. This latter is an interesting form, 

 as it connects all three varieties. — The heads of the genuine 

 J. nodosus are 3^-4 lines in diameter, and show a deeper brown 

 color than any of the other varieties; the flowers are l|-2 

 lines long, and the capsule, which is usually rostrate from an 

 oblong body and not regularly subulate, in most instances 

 considerably exceeds the sepals. The seeds are, as in all 

 other forms of this species, ovate or obovate, abruptly apicu- 

 late, and prettily reticulated with very distinct cross-lineola- 

 tion, 0.22-0.27 line long, their diameter being equal to about 

 one-half their length, or, in some forms with slender seeds, 

 much less. 



Var. /? is usually a taller plant, 12-20 inches high, but quite 

 slender j the compound or decompound rather lax panicle is 

 2-4 inches long, and the echinate fruit-heads have a diameter 

 of 5 or 6 lines. Flowers 2i lines long; obtuse anthers often 

 twice as long as the filaments; seeds usually a little smaller 

 than in the last, 0.22-0.24 line long. 



Var. 7 is a stouter plant, l-2£ feet high, with the largest 

 heads of any Juncus known to me, in fruit 6—8 lines in diame- 

 ter, in a rather compact panicle; seeds like those of the last. 

 The Texan variety and Dr. Vasey's specimens, mentioned 

 above, unite this with the genuine J. nodosus, from which I 

 cannot separate it, though looking so very distinct. 



44. J. Canadensis, J. Gay in La Harpe, Mon. 131; Kunth, 

 1. c. 333; caulibus cyespitosis teretibus la3vibus; panicuhe capi- 

 tulis pauci-multifloris; sepalis lineari-lanceolatis plerumque 



