RUSH FAMILY. 349 



Y. angustifdlia, wild over the plains beyond the Mississippi, is smaller, 

 with erect and narrow linear leaves, few threads on their white margins, and 

 yellowish-white flowers. 



* * Trunk arborescent, 2 -8 high in wild plants on the sands of the coast 

 S., or much higher in conservatories, naked below ; no threads to the leaves. 



Y. gloribsa. Trunk low, generally simple; leaves coriaceous, smooth- 

 edged, slender-spiny tipped, l-2long, !'-!' wide; flowers white, or pur- 

 plish-tinged outside, in a short-peduncled panicle. 



Y. aloifblia, SPANISH-BAYONET. Trunk 4 -20 high, branching when 

 old ; leaves very rigid, strongly spiny-tipped, with very rough-serrulate saw- 

 like edges, 2 or more long, 1^' - 2' wide; the short panicle nearly sessile. 



125. JUNCACE^S, RUSH FAMILY. 



Plants with the appearance and herbage of Sedges and Grasses, 

 yet with flowers of the structure of the Lily Family, having a com- 

 plete perianth of 6 parts, 3 outer and 3 inner, but greenish and 

 glume-like. Stamens 6 or 3, style 1 : stigmas 3. 



1. JUNCUS. Ovary and pod 3-celled or almost 3-celled, many-seeded. Herbage 



smooth: stems often leafless, generally pithy. 



2. LUZULA. Ovary and pod 1-celled, with 3 parietal placentae, and one seed to 



each. Stems and leaves often soft-hairy. 



1. JUNCUS, RUSH, BOG-RUSH. (The classical Latin name, from the 

 verb meaning to join, rushes being used for bands.) Flowers summer. We 

 have more than 30 species, chiefly in bogs or wet grounds, most of them diffi- 

 cult and little interesting to the beginner, to be studied in the Manual and 

 in Dr. Engelmann's monograph. The following are the commonest. 



1. LEAFLESS RUSHES, with naked and jointless round stems, wholly leafless, 

 merely with sheaths at base, in tufts from matted running rootstocks : Jlowers 

 in a lateral sessile panicle. If. 



J. effllSUS, COMMON RUSH, in low grounds ; has soft and pliant stems 

 2 - 4 high, panicle of many greenish flowers, 3 stamens, and very blunt pod. 



J. filiformis, of bogs and shores only N., is slender, pliant, "l- 2 high, 

 with few greenish flowers,, 6 stamens, and a broadly ovate blunt but short- 

 pointed pod. 



J. Balticus, of sandy shores N. ; has very strong rootstocks, rigid stems 

 2 - 3 high, a loose panicle of larger (2" long) and chestnut-colored with green- 

 ish flowers, 6 stamens, and oblong blunt but pointed deep-brown pod. 



2. GRASSY-LEAVED RUSHES, with stems bearing grass-like flat or thread- 

 shaped (never knotty) leaves, at least near the base : panicle terminal. 



* Flowers crowded in heads on the divisions of the panicle : stems flattened : 



leaves flat: stamens 3. 



J. marginatUS. Sandy wet soil, from S. New England S. & W. : l-3 

 high ; leaves long linear ; heads several -flowered, brownish or purplish. 2/ 



J. rdpens. Miry banks S. : spreading or soon creeping, 4' -6' high; leaves 

 short linear ; heads of green flowers few in a loose leafy panicle. 



* * Flowers single on the ultimate branches of the panicle, or rarely clustered: 



stamens 6 : leaves slender. 



J. bufbnius. Along all wet roadsides, &c. : stems low and slender, branch- 

 ing, 3' - 9' high ; greenish flowers scattered in a loose panicle ; sepals lance- 

 linear and awl-pointed, (i) 



J. Gerardi, BLACK GRASS of salt marshes : in tufts, with rather rigid stems 

 l-2 high, and a contracted panicle of chestnut-brown but partly greenish 

 flowers, the sepals blunt. 1J. 



