358 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



and others), are perfectly hardy, and so beautiful that they should have 

 a place in the smallest flower garden. 



ORDER LXXVIII. JUNCA'CE^. (Eusn FAMILY.) 



Herbs with jointed stems, grass-like or terete leaves and regular mostly perfect flowers. 

 Perianth of 6 similar, dry and glumaceous, persistent sepals. Stamens 6 (rarely 3) ; an- 

 thers iutrorse. Ovary free, forming in fruit a 1-3-celled 3-valved many-seeded capsule. 

 Style single. Seeds erect ; embryo enclosed at the base of hard albumen. 

 An Order possessing but little beauty or value. 



1. JUN'CUS, L. RUSH. 



[Latin, Jungere, to join ; being used to tie or bind objects together.] 



Sepals 6, glumaceous. Stamens mostly 6, inserted on the base of the 

 sepals, sometimes those on the 3 inner sepals abortive. Stigmas 3, 

 subsessile, filiform, villous. Capsule 3-celled, or somewhat 1-celled by 

 the incompleteness of the dissepiments, 3-valved, the valves bearing 

 the dissepiments in the middle. Seeds numerous. Chiefly perennials with 

 mostly simple and scape-like pithy stems and cymose, paniculate or clus- 

 tered small greenish or brownish flowers. 



L J, effu'sus, L. Stem naked, often sterile, furnished with short leaf- 

 less sheaths at base, filled with spongy pith ; panicle produced from the 

 side of the scape above the middle, diffusely much branched. 

 EFFUSED JUNCUS. Common Rush. Soft Rush. 



Root perennial, forming tussocks. Culms 2-3 feet high, simple, soft and pliable, sheathed 

 at base, and terminating at summit in a long tapering point. Inflorescence cymosc-panic- 

 ulate, bursting from a fissure in the side of the culm near the summit, often proliferous, 

 bracteate ; bracts oblong-lanceolate, scarious. Stamens 3, shorter than the sepals, oppo- 

 site the 3 outer ones ; anthers white. Capsule trigonous-obovoid, obtuse. /Seeds minute, 

 oblong, acute at each end, yellowish. 



Moist meadows and low grounds : throughout the United States. Fl. June. Fr. July- 

 August. 



Obs. The genus is a numerous one, comprising about 100 known 

 species of which some 18 or 20 are natives of the U. States. They 

 are all homely plants, and entirely worthless to the farmer ; but the one 

 here given is the most troublesome, continually forming numerous un- 

 sightly bunches or tussocks, in wet low grounds and requiring some 

 attention to keep it in proper subjection. Mr. ELLIOTT says that in 

 S. Carolina, this Rush " occupies and almost covers rice-fields as soon 

 as they are thrown out of cultivation." 



The " Black Grass " so common in salt marshes along the coast is 

 J, bulbosus, L., and the little species so common along footpaths, seem- 

 ing to flourish best where it is most trodden on, is J, bufonius, L. 



ORDER LXXIX. CYPERA'CE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



Rush-like or grass-like Jierbs, with fibrous roots and solid stems (culms), and closed 

 sheaths. Flowers usually one in the axil of each of the glume-like bracts which form an 

 imbricated cluster or spikelet. Perianth none, or consisting of scales or bristles. Stamens 



