on the Genus Juncus of Linnceus. 333 



Leaves linear-lanceolate, acuminate, eight-nerved, hairy at the 

 margin; stem-leaves smaller, shorter. Panicle terminal, cymosc, 

 repeatedly compound, often divaricate. Flowers small, about 

 three together, fasciculate. Bractes linear, hairy, acute. Cali/x- 

 /efl/e/sequal,acuminate,somewhat longer than the capsule. Cap- 

 sule ov?Lte,mucronate, three-seeded. 5eec?s elliptical ; coruncula 

 sitting close to the seed, and of the same shape. Vid. Tab. IX. 

 fig. 3. 



Linnaeus comprehended this, with some other real species, in 

 his Juncus pilosus ; but that it is most distinct from every other, no 

 botanist now doubts. It is the largest of the genus, whence the 

 name maximus : but though this be the case, it has a smaller seed- 

 vessel, in proportion, than any of the rest. It differs from L. pi- 

 losa and Forsteri in the circumstance of the flowers growing in 

 clusters, and the repeatedly compound panicle; and from the 

 campestris, in the absence of the spiked heads. It flowers later 

 than the others by a month. The herbalists Bauhin, Parkinson, 

 and Morison have two varieties of it, a larger and a smaller; 

 but whether this has arisen merely from the difierent size of the 

 plant, or whether there is really a distinction, as I confess I have 

 sometimes suspected, I cannot at present determine. Parkinson's 

 1185. 5. is Luzula albida. His Gramen nemorum hirsutum majus 

 alterum precox tuber osa radice, 1184. 2. is the large variety ; 1185, 3. 

 is the smaller one, copied from C. Bauhin. Morison's Gramen 

 hirsutum latifolium majus juncea panicula, sect. viii. t. Q.f. 2. is the 

 larger; and Gramen hirsutum latifolium ?ninus the smaller, and 

 copied also from C. Bauhin. Whether any old botanist besides 

 Bauhin was acquainted with it, is doubtful. Flor. Dan. 441. re- 

 presents the small variety. 



2x2 4. Luzula 



