414 THE RUSH FAMILY. 



3. Common Water-burr — {Spargdnium ramosum.) 

 Ponds and ditches, everywhere. Fl. July, August. 

 Curtis, ii. 358 ; E. B. xi. 7U. 



4. Small tjnbranched Wj:ter-burr — {Spargdnium simplex.) 

 Similar situations, tolerably common. Plentiful on Hale Moss. 

 Fl. July, August. 



Curtis, ii. 35!) ; E. B. xi. 745 ; Baxter, iv. 270. 



5. Floating Water-burr — [Spargdnium nutans.) 

 Ponds, ditches, and stagnant waters, common, but seldom found in 

 flower. In 1857 it blossomed abundantly in the canal between Mon- 

 ton Bridge and Worsley ; and in a brook between Worsley and Alder 

 Forest it blossoms frequently. Fl. July. 



E. B. iv. 273. 



CXLI.— THE RUSH FAMILY. Jimcdcem. 



Herbaceous plants, often much resembling grasses, but with pretty 

 star-like flowers that indicate a near relationship to the liliaceous 

 families. Stems generally rigid, straw-like, and unbranched, and in 

 the true rushes, or genus Juncus, provided with distinct pith, a cir- 

 cumstance anomalous among Endogens. In many species of the same 

 genus they terminate in points as sharp as needles. Leaves either 

 cylindrical, very long and slender, and hollow, or nearly so ; or flat, 

 linear, and tapering, like those of grasses. Sometimes they are 

 undeveloped, existing only in the rudimentary form of dark-brown or 

 blackish scales which sheathe the base of the stem. Inflorescence 

 variable, but most frequently an irregular panicle or umbel, which is 

 either terminal or lateral. Calyx and corolla forming a rcgulai* six- 

 parted perianth, which is ordinarily dry, and of a deep-brown or 

 greenish colour. Stamens six, rarely only three ; ovaiy solitary and 

 free ; stigmas usually three ; fruit a triangular capsule, usually three- 

 celled, few or many-seeded, and surrounded by the permanent perianth. 



Nearly two himdrcd species are known, chiefly inhabiting the colder 

 parts of the world, and some of them the very coldest. They are in 

 many cases of considerable utility, as happens with the common rushes 

 of our own country, so valuable to the chair-maker and to the candle- 

 maker. Twenty-seven are esteemed British, thirteen of them growing 

 near Manchester, but the real number is probably not above twenty- 

 one, Manchester possessing ten. 



