CLASS VI. ORDER I.] JUNCUS. 5Q5 



English Botany, t. 801. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 169. Hooker. 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 166. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 275. J. bulbosus, 

 Linn, Sp. pi. ed. 1. p. 327. 



P. repens. Stem decumbent at the base, and rooting./, supinus, 

 Mcench. 



y.fluitans. Stem trailing, or floating and rooting. J. subverticil- 

 latus, Wulfen. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 170. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 

 275. Host. Gram. Aust. vol. iii. t. 88. J". setifolius, Ehrh. Calam. 86. 



Root of long slender branched fibres. Stem very various, mostly 

 bulbous at the base, in dried situations frequently not more than an 

 inch high, and bearing a single cluster of a few small flowers ; it is 

 not unfrequent in damp places from four to six inches high, slender, 

 erect, simple, bearing one, two, or three leaves, and as often it is found 

 decumbent at the base, and rooting from the joints of the leaves, it is 

 then the /. repens ; and if the ground where this has grown becomes 

 overflowed with water, or that the plant has grown in a marshy place, it 

 becomes long and trailing, or floats on the surface of the water, putting 

 out roots and flowering stems from the joints, and frequently several 

 leaves, it is then the y.fluitans. Leaves slender, bristle-shaped,, mostly 

 as long as the stem, somewhat compressed and channeled above, the 

 base dilated into a sheath, with pale thin membranous margins, pro- 

 truded above into oblong auricles on each side, the outer sheaths 

 mostly of a purplish red colour, hollow within, and with transverse 

 partitions. Panicle various, sometimes only of one or two clusters, of 

 from two to six flowers, but mostly a branched panicle, with distant 

 heads, on slender spreading or reflexed branches, two or three times 

 divided, the flowers sessile, or nearly so, each having at the base an 

 ovate-lanceolate membranous pale brown bractea. Perianth of six 

 nearly equal oblong acute pieces, terminating in a short bristly point, 

 the three inner ones obtuse, from a pale thin membranous margin, each 

 three ribbed, green, with dark brown sides. Stamens about half as 

 long as the perianth, with short filaments and yellow anthers, the style 

 short, with spreading stigmas. Capsule elliptic, triangular, obtuse, 

 with a short thick point, three celled, three valved, and many seeded, of 

 a palish brown colour. 



Habitat. Wet marshy or boggy situations ; common. 

 Perennial ; flowering in August. 



This is one of the most difficult species of any of our genus to deter- 

 mine, varying so greatly in its appearance according to the situation of 

 its growth. The most constant characters are to be sought for in the 

 perianth, and more especially in the obtuse capsule, which readily dis- 

 tinguishes this from J. lampocarpus, the small varieties to which, in the 

 general appearance and growth of the plant, it greatly assimilates. 

 The flowers sometimes become viviparous, which gives a remarkable 

 appearance to the plant ; but in no other respect is it different from the 

 more general character. 



