JUNCALES.] 



JUNCACEyE. 



191 



Order LVIII. JUNCACEiE.— Rushes. 



Junci, Juss. Gen. (1789), in pari.— Juncese, DC. Fl. Fr. 3. 155. (1815) ; R. Brown Prodr. 257. (1810).— 

 Juricaceae, Agardh Aphor. 156. (1823), in part ; Endl. Gen. li.; Meisner, Gen. p. 405. Kunth.Enum. 

 3. p. 295. KingiaceEG, Calectasieae, Xerotideae, Endl. I. c. 



Diagnosis. — Juncal Endogens, %oith scattered flowers and a mimite undivided embryo. 



Herbaceous plants, with fascicled or fibrous roots. Leaves fistular, or flat and chan- 

 nelled with parallel veins. Inflorescence often more or less capitate. Flowers generally 

 bro^\^l or green, in umbels, racemes, or long compact spikes, or even panicles. Calyx and 

 corolla fonning an inferior, 6-parted, more 

 or less glumaceous or cartilaginous, peri- 

 anth. Stamens 6, inserted into the base 

 of the segments ; sometimes 3, and then 

 opposite the calyx. Anthers 2-celled, 

 turned inwards, opening longitudinally, or 

 by pores at the points. Ovary 1- or .3- 

 celled, 1- or many-seeded, or 1 -celled and 

 3-seeded ; style 1 ; stigmas generally 3, 

 sometimes only 1 ; ovules anatropal. Finiit 

 capsiUar, ^\•ith 3 valves, which have the 

 dissepiment in theu* middle, sometimes 



destitute of valves, and 1 -seeded by abortion. Seeds with a thin 

 skin ; albumen fimi, fleshy, or cartilaginous ; embryo very minute, 

 included, near the hilum . 



This Order, in its most genuine state, may be said to stand between 

 petaloideous and glumaceous Endogens, agreeing with the former in 

 the floral leaves having assumed the verticillate state necessary to 

 constitute a perianth, and \\\i\\ the latter in their textm'e. But while 

 a glumaceous confused calyx and corolla are the characteristic of 

 one part of the Order, another part, approaching Lilyworts, assumes 

 a petaloid state ; so that Uttle is finally left to separate Rushes 

 from the latter, except the diff'erence in the embryo, which is ex- 

 tremely small in Rushes, and large and axile in Lihes, It is in fact 

 by this last character, more than by any other, that the Order seems 

 to be distinguished ; for otherwise, Narthecium would go to LUies, 

 and all the Aphyllanthous Lilies would come to Rushes. The genera 

 are in great need of careful revision ; of several the embryo is un- 

 known, and it may be found hereafter necessary to make consider- 

 able alteration among them : but till the whole history of the obscure 

 genera shall have been cleared up, it is at least premature to create 

 more Orders for their reception. I do not discover a single feature in 

 Xerotes which can divade it from Rushes proper, and as to Flagella- 

 ria, equally made the usurper of a throne that cannot be maintained, 

 it seems a mere runaway from the Spiderworts, dififering very little 

 from Aneilema. Some of the species of this Order are remarkably 

 unlike European Rushes. The Prionium Palmita of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, has the look of an Aloe, or of the crown of a Pine-apple, 

 moimted upon a thick black spongy stem. Kingia has an arborescent 

 stem terminated by a tuft of leaves. Calectasias are branched herbs, 

 with dry, pennanent, starry flowers, of a bright violet, and anthers 

 opening by pores, like a Solanum. According to Brown {Hoolcer^s 

 London Journal, 2. 494.), the genera Kingia, Dasypogon, Calectasia, 

 Xerotes, and Baxteria, form a peculiar tribe of this Order ; but no 

 character is assigned to such tribe. I cannot, however, include 

 Dasj^ogon. Brown remarks, that Rushes are intermediate be- 

 tween Restiacese and Asphodeleae, differing from the former in hav- 

 ing an included embryo, a radicle usually centripetal, and the stamens, 

 when there are only 3, opposite the sepals. Agardh combines Restia- 

 cese and Rushes. — Aph. 157. From Palms they are distinguished, 

 independently of their habit, by the texture of the perianth, by the 

 constant tendency to produce more than 1 ovule in each cell, and by the embryo never 



Fig. CXXXI.— Juncus acutifloms ; 1. a flower; 2. the pistil; .3. a perpendicular section of the ovary ; 

 4. seeds ; 5. a seed gemiinating. 



Fig. CXXXI. 



