273 JUNCAGINE^. [Tnylochin. 



ORD. 77. JUNCAGINE^E. Kick, Arrow-grass Family. 



Perianth of six divisions, in a double row, both herbaceous, 

 rarely wanting. Stamens six. Ovaries 3 6, firmly cohering; 

 ovules one or two, approximated by their base, erect. Fruit 

 dry, 1 2-seeded. Seeds erect. Albumen none. Embryo 

 with a lateral cleft, for the emission of the plumule (as in 

 Aroidece); radicle straight, remote from the hilum. Mars/i 

 plants. Leaves narrow. Flowers inconspicuous, in spikes or 

 racemes. 



1. TRIGLOCHIN. Linn. Arrow-grass. 



Perianth of six, concave, deciduous leaves, three outer and 

 three inner. Anthers sessile, lodged in the leaves of the 

 perianth, with their backs towards the pistil. Capsules 

 3 6, 1 -seeded, united by a longitudinal receptacle, from 

 which they separate at the base. Name from T/>cts, three, and 

 7\w^ts, a point, from the three points of the capsules. 



Hexandria. Triyynia. 



1. T. palustre, Linn. Marsh Arrow-grass. Fruit 3-celled, 

 nearly linear. Br. FL L p. 171. E. Fl. v. ii. p. 200, E. Bot. 

 t. 366. 



Wet meadows, and by the sides of ditches in marshy situations, 

 plentiful. Fl. Aug. 1. Leaves all radical, linear, fleshy, slightly 

 grooved on the upper side, sheathing and membranous at the base. 

 Scape eight to ten inches high, terminating in a lax, simple spike or 

 raceme. Flowers small, greenish. Capsules three, linear, united by 

 a common receptacle, so as to form one 3-celled fruit, each cell sepa- 

 rating at its base, and suspended by the extremity, containing one seed, 

 and riot dehiscent. " Mr. Wilson finds that the leaves, when bruised, 

 yield a very fcerid smell, and that the root, under certain circumstances 

 at least, is a- creeping one, sending out jointed, scaly runners, with com^ 

 paratively large, ovate, shortly accumulated bulbs at the extremity. 

 These bulbs at the end of the jointed runners have very much the ap- 

 pearance of a scorpion's tail." Hooker. 



2. T. maritimum, Linn. Sea-side Arrow-grass. Fruit six- 

 celled, ovate. Br, FL 1. p. 171. E. FL v. ii. p. 201. E. Bot. 

 t. 255. 



Salt marshes, not unfrequent. FL May Aug. 1. Larger than 

 the last, and stouter, differing essentially in'its fruit, which is formed of 

 six combined capsules, constituting a broadly ovate fruit; not sepa- 

 rating from the base and suspended by their summits, as in T. palustre. 

 Even when in flower, the same distinction is observable in the germcn 

 as in the fruit. 



