292 Mr. J. E. BiCHENo's Observations 



plants of various genera, e. g. Scirpi, Schceiii, Cyperi, Triglochines, 

 Butomiis, Eriophora, and others. Nevertheless, with all this con- 

 fusion, they divided the real Jiiiici, which are included in the 

 first subdivision of the genus in the Species Plantarum, into two 

 families, the hard and the soft; the former being all called acu- 

 tiis, and the latter Icevis*. The Gramina hirsuta, which are those 

 Jtinci described as plane-leaved by Linnajus, were kept entirely 

 distinct, and were arranged among the Grasses. 



Our systematic countryman Ray gives this description, " de 

 Junco et Gramine Junceof:" — " Juncus caulibus teretibus, fun- 

 gosis, panicula vel in summo caule existente, vel ex ejus latere 

 inferius exeunte, et multis seminibus majusculis composite a re- 

 liquis graminifoliis distinguitur. Gramina juncea a juncis distin- 

 guuntur caulibus foliosis articulatis. Folia etiam in his non sem- 

 per teretia sunt, sed in nonnullis speciebus compressa, in omni- 

 bus tamen fungosa." The latter part of this description alludes 

 to such as have jointed leaves : but Ray confesses that he has 

 admitted under his definition, in conformity to the opinion of 

 other botanists, plants which he did not know how to dispose of 

 otherwise. He has placed the Gramina hirsuta in a distinct divi- 

 sion. In the second edition of his Synopsis, the Gramina juncea 

 are said to differ merely in their having a leafy stem. Ray's de- 

 finition, it must be confessed, very much lessened the number of 

 plants which were at first admitted, though it still embraced the 

 Eriophora, Triglochines, and some of the Schani and Sciipi. No 

 improvement of the character appears, as might be expected, in 

 the Methodus Graminum, published afterwards; but on the con- 

 trary, it is more loosely defined. Dillenius, in his edition of 

 the Sij7iopsis, introduced considerable correction both in the cha- 

 racter of the genus and the synonyms, and the true Juncus is 



* Bauh, Pin., p. 11. f Historia Plantarum, p. 1302. 



thus 



