JUNCACEAE. 



67 



Pistil superior, tricarpous, 1-eelled or 3-celled, with 3-many ascending 

 anatropous ovules, and 3 filiform stigmas. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. 

 Seeds 3-many, small, cylindrie to subglobose, with loose or close seed-coat, 

 with or without caruneular or tail-like appendages. Seven genera and 

 about 200 species, widely distributed. 



1. JUNCUS L. 



Usually perennial plants, principally of swamp habitat, with glabrous 

 herbage; stems leaf-bearing or scapose, leaf -sheaths with free margins, and 

 leaf-blades terete, gladiate, grass-like, or channeled. Inflorescence paniculate 

 or corymbose, often unilateral, sometimes congested, bearing its flowers either 

 singly and with 2 bractlets (prophylla), or in heads and without bractlets, but 

 each in the axil of a bract ; bractlets almost always entire ; stamens 6 or 3 ; 

 ovary 1-celled or by the intrusion of the placentae 3-celled, the placentae cor- 

 respondingly parietal or axial; seeds several-many, usually distinctly reticu- 

 lated or ribbed, often tailed. About 215 species, most abundant in the north 

 temperate zone. The plants bloom in summer. [Latin, from jungo, to bind, 

 in allusion to the use of these plants for withes.] Type species: J uncus 

 acutus L. 



Leaf-blades terete ; tall perennials. 



Inner perianth-segments obtuse ; capsule ovoid. 



rerianth-segments acute ; capsule oblong. 

 Leaf-blades flat. 



Annual ; low ; flowers solitary on the branches of the in- 

 florescence. 



Perennial ; tall ; flowers in panicled heads. 



1. J. acutus. 



2. </. maritimus. 



3. J. hufonins. 



4. J. aristtilatus. 



1. Juncus acutus L. Large Marsh 

 Rush. (Fig. 93.) Stems stout, 2^°-3*° 

 high, from stout rootstocks. Basal leaves 

 several, stout, stiff, often as long as the 

 stem, pungently tipped, terete; leaves of 

 the inflorescence stout, erect, tipped like 

 the basal ones, as long as the panicle or 

 shorter, or sometimes exceeding it; panicle 

 3'-9' long, its stiff branches nearly erect; 

 heads few-flowered; perianth about 2" long, 

 its outer segments lanceolate, the inner 

 oval-oblong, obtuse; stamens 6, shorter 

 than the perianth; capsule about 34" long, 

 ovoid, tipped, about twice as long as the 

 perianth; seeds tailed at each end, oblong. 



Camden Marsh ; Coney Island ; St. 

 George's Island. Naturalized. Coasts of 

 southwestern Europe and the Mediterranean 

 region ; southern and lower California. 



