508 JUNCUS. [CLASS VI. ORDER I. 



the sheaths smooth, or finely striated, green, or sometimes pinkish. 

 Flowers distant, arranged on one side of the branches of the panicle, 

 nearly sessile from the base, of one or two ovate-lanceolate pale mem- 

 branous bractea. Perianth of six nearly equal lanceolate segments, 

 with long taper points, formed by the elongation of the green two 

 ribbed keel, the outer ones broader and longer than the inner, the 

 margins thin, white, membranous. Stamens half as long as the 

 perianth, the filaments very short. Capsule elliptic, oblong, obtuse, 

 somewhat angular, three valved, three celled, many seeded, shorter than 

 the perianth. 



Habitat. Moist or marshy places ; frequent. 



Annual ; flowering in July and August. 



This is an extremely variable plant as to size and luxuriance ; we 

 have frequently seen it in places that have become dried up not more 

 than an inch long, with a simple raceme of two or three flowers, but 

 mostly it is from four to six inches high, with a much elongated 

 panicle. The whole plant is of a pale green, except sometimes the 

 base and lower sheaths of the leaves are of a pink colour. The seg- 

 ments of the perianth are also very various in the length of the point ; 

 we have specimens from the banks of the mountain streams in Scot- 

 land with the point much attenuate, and the whole segments longer 

 than is usual, and in specimens from a rather dry situation they are 

 short, scarcely longer than the capsule, with the three inner ones 

 membranous above. 



b. Stems naked. 



19. J. ten'uis, Willd. (Fig. 580.) Slender spreading Rush. Stem 

 simple, naked above, leafy at the base ; leaves linear, erect, channeled ; 

 panicle forked, with solitary sub-racemose flowers, shorter than the 

 leafy bractea; perianth of six three ribbed lanceolate taper pointed 

 pieces, longer than the ovate capsule. 



Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 167. J. gracilis. English Botany, 

 t. 2174. J. Gesneri. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 167. Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 274. 



Root of branched woolly fibres. Stem slender, erect, about a foot 

 high, rounded and leafy below, naked, and somewhat triangular above. 

 Leaves few, arising from the root, erect, shorter than the stem, linear, 

 bristle-shaped, channeled, and somewhat striated, dilated at the base 

 into a thin striated sheath, with thin membranous margins, elongated 

 above into an obtuse ligula. Panicle terminal, forked, of two, three, 

 or four spreading branches, of unequal lengths, in the axis of the 

 forks are two or three nearly sessile flowers, and two or three solitary 

 ones on one side of the branches. Bracteas longer than the panicle, 

 leafy, linear, channeled, one much longer than the other two. Peri- 

 anth of six equal lanceolate taper pointed pieces, with a three ribbed 

 green keel terminating in the point, the margins white, thin, mem- 

 branous. Stamens with the filaments shorter than the anthers, and the 



