EXGELMANN — NORTH AM. SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 465 



the inside of a valve with a parietal placenta on the lower 

 half. Meyer, therefore, had seen the ripe fruit, and could not 

 have failed to see some seeds, unless all had fallen out; but 

 as they did not differ from the common form of Juncus seeds, 

 he did not mention their shape, which he would certainly 

 have done, and would have placed the plant in his second 

 section, Marsippospermum, had they been at all appendicu- 

 late, as they are in the plant with us heretofore taken for J. 

 paradoxus. Besides this, the latter, which is enumerated 

 here as J. Canadensis, var. longecaudatus, never has the 

 inner sepals shorter, but almost always longer, than the 

 outer ones, and has rarely, if ever, as far as I am inform- 

 ed, those leafy degenerations of the flower-heads so com- 

 mon in var. Ugitimus. La Harpe, who describes "J. para- 

 doxus''' from Pennsylvanian specimens, speaks of the sepals 

 as being nearly equal to the capsule, and of the seeds as ovoid. 

 Why both, Meyer as well as La Harpe, should have separated 

 their J. pallescens or acuminatus from this J. paradoxus is 

 not very clear; they have evidently seen very few or single 

 specimens only, and seem to have laid too much stress on the 

 slight difference in the length of the sepals. 



The extreme forms of this variable plant might readily be 

 taken for distinct species were the intermediate ones want- 

 ing. All the forms produce from a short rootstock few or 

 many erect or somewhat ascending, rather weak (except in 

 var. <5) terete or slightly compressed stems, rarely (except in 

 var. y and 6) over two feet, and sometimes less than one foot 

 high. The bracts are broad, membranaceous, and (the outer 

 ones at least) awned ; heads and flowers are of different sizes, 

 but the sepals always regularly lance- subulate and very acute 

 or almost awned but not rigid, and, with rare exceptions, 

 equal in length ; only in some few specimens of var. Ugiti- 

 mus I have seen the outer a little longer than the inner ones.' 

 Capsules as long as, or longer than, the sepals, pale green 

 to straw-colored or light brownish, with parietal placenta on 

 the lower half of the valves. Seeds obovate ov oblanceolate, 

 acute or apiculate at both ends, 0.20-0.25 line long, the length 

 being equal to about 2£ diameters, of a yellowish or light 

 brown color and apparently semi-transparent, neatly reticu- 

 ted, and 6 or 7 ribs visible on one side. 



Var. a. Ugitimus is the most variable of all the forms of 

 this species, but is always readily recognized by the larger 

 flowers, 1.5-2.0 lines long, and the ovate-prismatic obtusish 

 mucronate capsule of the length of the sepals. Stems scarcely 

 ever over 2 feet high; panicle, as well as heads, extremely 

 variable, the former apparently more compound and the lat- 

 ter fewer-flowered north and eastward, while some Illinois 

 (JE Hall, Hb. n. 55) and Texas specimens ("Hog bed prai- 

 ries" on the Guadaloupe, Wright, Guadaloupe to Matamoras, 



