RUSH FAMILY. 349 



Y. augUStifdlia, wild over the plains beyond the Mississippi, is smaller, 

 with erect and narrow linear leaves, few threads on their white margins, and 

 yellowish-white flowers. 



* * Trunk arborescent, 2° -8° high in wild plants on the sands of the coast 

 S., or much higher in conservatories, naked below : no threads to the leaves. 



Y. gloridsa. Trnnk low, generally simple; leaves coriaceous, smooth- 

 edged, slender-spiny tipped, 1° -2'^ long, I'-lj'wide; flowers white, or pur- 

 plish-tinged outside, in a short-peduncled panicle. 



Y. aloifolia, Spanish-Bayonet. Trunk 4° -20° high, branching wheu 

 old ; leavas very rigid, strongly spiny-tipped, with very rough-serrulate saw- 

 like edges, 2° or more long, Ig' -2' wide; the short panicle nearly sessile. 



125. JUNCACE^, RUSH FAMILY. 



Plants with the appearance and herbage of Sedges and Grasses, 

 yet with flowero of the structure of the Lily Family, having a com- 

 plete perianth of 6 parts, 3 outer and 3 inner, but greenish and 

 glume-like. Stamens 6 or 3, style 1 : stigmas 3. 



1. JUNCUS. Ovary and pod 3-celled or almost 3-celled, many-seeded. Herbage 



smooth : stems often leafless, generally pithy. 



2. LUZULA. Ovary and pod 1-celled, with 3 parietal placenta, and one seed to 



each. Stems and leaves often soft-hairy. 



1. JUNCUS, RUSH, BOG-RUSH. (The classical Latin name, from the 

 verb meaning to Join, rushes being used for bands.) Flowers summer. — We 

 have more than 30 species, chiefly in bogs or wet grounds, most of them diffi- 

 cult and little interesting to the beginner, — to be studied in the Manual and 

 in Dr. Engelmann's monograph. The following are the commonest. 



§ 1. Leafless Rushes, with naked and jointless round stems, wholly leafless, 

 merelfi with sheaths at base, in tufts from matted running rootstocks : flowers 

 in a lateral sessile panicle. ^ 



J. efFusus, Common Rush, in low grounds ; has soft and pliant stems 

 2° -4° high, panicle of many greenish flowers, 3 stamens, and very blunt pod. 



J. filif6rmis, of bogs and shores only N., is slender, pliant, l°-2° high, 

 with few greenish flowers, 6 stamens, and a broadly ovate blunt but short- 

 pointed pod. 



J. B^lticus, of sandy shores N. ; has very strong rootstocks, rigid stems 

 20 _ 30 liigh, a loose panicle of larger (2" long) and chestnut-colored with green- 

 ish flowers, 6 stamens, and oblong blunt but pointed deep-brown pod. 



§ 2. Grassy-leaved Rushes, with stems bearing grass-like flat or thread- 

 shaped {never knotli/) leaves, at least near the base : panicle terminal. 



* Flowers crowded in heads on the divisions of the panicle : steins flattened : 



leaves flat: stamens 3. 



J. margin&,tUS. Sandy wet soil, from S. New England S. & W. : l^-S^ 

 high ; leaves long linear ; heads several-flowered, brownish or purplish. IJi 



J. r6pens. Miry banks S. : spreading or soon creeping, 4' -6' high; leaves 

 short linear ; heads of green flowers few in a loose leafy panicle. 



* * Flowers single on the ultimate branches of the panicle, or rarely clustered: 



stamens 6 : leaves slender. 



J, bufbnius. Along all wet roadsides, &c. : stems low and slender, branch- 

 ing, 3' -9' high; greenish flowers scattered in a loose panicle; sepals lance- 

 linear and awl-pointed. (1) 



J. Ger^rdi, Black Grass of salt marshes : in tufts, with rather rigid stems 

 lo_2o high, and a contracted panicle of chestnut-browu but partly greenish 

 flowers, the sepals blunt. ]•/ 



