80 Juncaceae 



1. JUNCUS L. RUSH. 



Perennial or sometimes annual, glabrous plants, grow- 

 ing usually in marshes or wet places, with simple terete 

 or flattened, usually pithy stems. Leaves terete, chan- 

 nelled or flat. Flowers solitary or clustered in cymes, 

 panicles or heads, greenish or brownish. Stamens 6 or 

 3. Capsule 3-celled, or 1-celled with 3 parietal placentae, 

 many-seeded. 



* Panicle sessile, apparently lateral; stems terete, leafless or the basal 



sheaths bearing a few terete leaves. 

 -*- Flowers clustered. 



1. J. acutus sphaerocarpus Engelm. Stems and leaves 0.5- 

 1.5 m. high, stout, rigid and pungent, growing in large tussocks; 

 panicle 6-12 cm. long, about equaling the spathe, secondary 

 spathes long-acuminate ; clusters 2-4-flowered ; perianth segments 

 scariously margined, outer broadly lanceolate, acute, inner 

 obovate, deeply emarginate, 2 mm. long; capsule subglobose, 

 apiculate, about 4 mm. long. (/. robustus Wats.) 



Salt marshes near the coast. Port Ballona ; Wilmington. 



*--*- Flowers solitary. 



++ Flowers 4 mm. long or more; capsule oblong-ovate. 



2. J. Lescurii elatus Wats. Stems rigid, stout, 1.5-2.5 m. 

 high, leafless, from a stout creeping rhizome; panicle lax and 

 widely spreading, 6-12 cm. long; perianth segments 5-6 mm. 

 long, lanceolate, acuminate, with brown margins ; anthers much 

 longer than the filaments ; capsule oblong-ovate, acute, beakless, 

 about equaling the perianth. 



Occasional along streams in our foothill canyons. What seems to be the 

 same has been collected by the author along New River near Long Beach. 



3. J. Balticus Willd. Stems rigid, rather slender, leafless, 

 3-4 dm. high; panicle 2-4 cm. long; perianth segments lanceo- 

 late, acute, 4-5 mm. long, brownish; capsule rather acutely 

 angled, beaked ; seeds distinctly reticulate. 



Frequent along streams and in low ground generally throughout our range. 



4. J. Mexicanus Willd. Closely resembling the last, but 

 more slender, 12-24 cm. high ; stems somewhat flattened, sheaths 



