124 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



with that of the Orontiaceous plants. It is a reed-like plant 

 \^ ith thickj shortly creeping rootstocks, and everywhere highly 

 aromatic. The leaves are linear, sword-shaped, erect, two to 

 three feet long. The flowering stem is also erect, simple, and 

 very much resembling the leaves, its long linear, leaf-like 

 spathe forming a flattened continuation of the stalk portion 

 which supports the dense cylindrical green spike or spadix 

 of flowers. The spike, which pushes out sideways, while the 

 spathe grows erect, appears, indeed, as if it grew out of the 

 side of a leaf; it is sessile, stoutish, two to three inches long, 

 consisting of numerous hermaphrodite flowers closely packed, 

 the flowers consisting of six short green scales, six stamens, 

 and a two- or three-celled ovary. The aromatic herbage of this 

 plant is sometimes used for flavouring beer and spirits, and in 

 Norfolk, where it abounds, it is said to be strewed on the 

 floors of the churches on festival days. 



Somewhat similar to this in the minutise of its structure, 

 though diflering considerably in aspect, is the Common Rush 

 {Juncus communis) J a plant of the Juncaceous family. This 

 well-known plant, one form of which is frequently called 

 Juncus effusus, has a short, creeping, matted rootstock, w^hich 

 produces dense tufts of cylindrical leafless stems, two to three 

 feet high, sheathed at the base by a few brown scales, and 

 tapered above into a fine point. Some of these stems are 

 barren and seem to resemble leaves, whilst others bear on one 

 side, towards the top, a loosely clustered, irregular, compound, 

 bracteated panicle of small brownish flowers. These consist 

 of a regular, dry, calyx-like perianth of six pointed segments, 

 usually three, but sometimes six, stamens, a single style, with 

 three stigmas, and a many-seeded very obtuse capsule, open- 

 ing in three valves. The plant is very abundant in wet situa- 

 tions, almost all over the northern hemisphere, and in some 



