6 JUNCACEAL 
high, bearing its pyramidal panicle of chestnut-brown flowers near the top of 
its erect stem in July and August. The clusters are 3 to 12-flowered, and 
the capsules are of a pale brown hue. It is one of our most common 
Rushes, growing in bogs and ditches, and such places as Clare refers to, 
when describing the scenes of childhood : 
‘Swamps of wild Rush-beds, and sloughs’ quashy traces 
Grounds of rough fellows, with thistle and weed, 
Flats and low valleys of kingcups and daisies, 
Sweetest of subjects are ye for my reed. 
‘* And long, my dear valleys, long, long may ye flourish, 
Though Rush-beds and thistles make most of your pride ! 
May showers never fail your green daisies to nourish, 
Nor suns dry the fountain that rills by its side! 
Your skies may be gloomy, and misty your mornings, 
Your flat swampy valleys unwholesome may be, 
Still, refuse of Nature, without her adornings, 
Ye are dear as this heart in my bosom to me.” 
This is the J. articulatus of Linneus. 
9. Black-headed Jointed Rush (J. nigritéllus)—Stem and leaves 
somewhat rounded ; cyme erect, slightly compound, 3 inner segments of the 
perianth rather longer and broader, all shorter than the capsule ; capsule 
linear-oblong, 3-sided, and beaked. This species was reported by D. Don as 
growing on the mountains of Clova. Sir J. D. Hooker, however, regards 
the specimens from Don in Borrer’s herbarium as examples of J. lamprocarpus. 
10. Shining-fruited Jointed Rush (J. lamprocirpus).—Stem and 
leaves somewhat flattened ; cyme repeatedly compound ; capsule egg-shaped, 
acute, longer than the perianth; stamens 6. This is a very common Rush 
in boggy and marshy places, and is one or two feet high. Its flowers appear 
in July and August, and are succeeded by dark brown shining capsules. Its 
erect terminal cyme might have fitted it for Chaucer’s description : 
** The stalke was as rishe right, 
And thereon stood the knops upright.” 
11. Lesser Bog Rush, or Little Bulbous Rush (J. wligindsus).— 
Stem erect, sometimes swollen into a bulb at the base, leafy ; leaves bristly, 
and rather knotty ; heads lateral and terminal, about 3-flowered ; capsule 
blunt, longer than the perianth. This Rush is common in wet places, and 
very variable, assuming the bulbous form only when growing on somewhat 
drier spots. It is from three to eight inches high, and bears, from June to 
August, a few little distant clusters of greenish-brown flowers, succeeded by 
the blunt light-brown capsules. When growing in very damp places, its 
stems become prostrate, and rooting at each joint; and it is then the 
J. subverticillatus or J. swpinus of some botanists. 
12. Blunt-flowered Jointed Rush (./. obtusiflérus).—Stem and leaves 
rounded ; cyme forked and spreading ; segments of perianth very blunt, as 
long as the 3-sided pale brown capsule ; rootstock creeping. ‘This is not an 
infrequent plant on wet pastures and marshy places— 
‘* With many a flag and rushy bunch bespread.”’ 
The stems, which are about two feet high, are not tufted ; they bear, in July, 
the brownish flowers sometimes tinged with purple. 
