on the Genus Juncus of Linnaus. 301 



J. acutus vulgaris. Park. 1193. 1. Moris, s. viii. t. 10. /. 13. 

 J. acutus. Ger. Em. 35. Rati S)/n. 432. 



Angl. Hard Rush. Common Hard Rush. Sharp Rush. 



Peren. July, August. 



Root creeping, black. Stem from one to two feet high, striated, 

 glaucous, rigid, terminating in a sharp, tapering, frequently 

 incurved summit; sheathed at the base with large, brown, 

 shining scales. Paiiicle lateral, bursting about one-third the 

 length of the stem below the top, erect, loose, branched. Ca- 

 lyx-leafiets striated, very acuminate ; three inner leaflets shorter. 

 Flowers hexandrous. CapsiUe elliptical, three-sided, narrower 

 towards the top, mucronate, shining. 



However easily distinguished this plant may be on examination, 

 it is uncertain whether it was known to Linnaeus, although a pro- 

 duction of Sweden, or he has included it in his J. injlexus, which 

 no botanist since his time has understood. Willdenow has suf- 

 fered the latter species to remain in his edition of the Species 

 Plantarum, and adds from his own observation this remark : 

 " Culmi suprema pars non est teres, sed folii ad instar compres- 

 sus*." Sibthorp, who seems to have taken the J. glaucus up 

 from Ehrhart {Gram. 85.), first introduced the trivial name into 

 the British Flora. It may be known even at a distance from the 

 soft Rushes, by its rigid stem, of a glaucous hue, and scanty pa- 

 nicle ; and, on a closer view, by its pointed capsule. Wahlen- 

 burg (Flor. Lapp. p. 79.) says of those specimens he found in 

 Lapland, that the flowers were larger than those figured in £«•» 

 glish Botany. 



* The authors of the Flore Frangaise, vol. v. have expressed their opinion that the 

 J. inflexus of their third volume is nothing more than J, glaucus j adding at the same time, 

 that the real J, injlexus, Linn, has but three stamina. 



2 R 2 4. Juncus 



