356 JUNCACE^. (rush family.) 



Order 82. JUNCACE^E. (Rush Family.) 



Grass-like or sedge-like herbs, with small flowers, a regular and 

 hypogynous persistent perianth of 6 similar glumaceous sepals, 6 or 

 rarely 3 stamens, a single short style, 3 filiform hairy stigmas, and an 

 ovary 1 or 3-celled. — Plants with liliaceous flowers and sedge-like 

 appearance and texture. 



1. liuzula. Pod 1-celled, 3-seeded. Plant often hairy. 



2. Juncus. Pod 3-celled, or 1-celled by the placentae not reaching the axis, many-seeded- 



Plant never hairj*. 



1. LUZULA, DC. Wood-Rush. 



Pod with one seed to each parietal placenta. Generally in dry ground, with 

 usually flat and soft usually hairy leaves, and spiked-crowded or umbeUed 

 flowers. 



* Pedicels \-Jloicered, in a loose compound cyme. 



1. L. spadieea, DC. Glabrous or slightly villous : stems 6 to 18 inches 

 high or more : inflorescence lax and nodding, much exceeding the usually 

 small involucral bracts: perianth straw-color or more or less tinged with 

 brown ; segments slightly shorter than the acute apiculate capsule : anthers 

 much exceeding the filaments : seed oblong, brownish, not appendaged — 

 Ranging from the Arctic Ocean southward into California, Colorado, and the 

 N. Atlantic States; chiefly the following varieties; 



Var. parviflora, Meyer. Inflorescence often 3 to 6 inches long, with 

 elongated unequal drooping branches and slender pedicels : flowers smaller : 

 anthers about equalling the filaments. 



Var. melanocarpa, Meyer. Similar, but capsule dark brown. — L. par- 

 viflora, var. melanocarpa, Gray, Manual. 



Var. subcongesta, Watson. Like the others, but the pedicels short and 

 more or less fascicled at the ends of the branches of the cyme. — Bot. Calif, 

 ii. 202. 



* * Flowers spicate : spikes erect, mostly pedunculate in a cymose umbel. 



2. L. eomosa, Meyer. Villous: stem 6 to 15 inches high, leafy : the folia- 

 ceous bract usually exceeding the inflorescence : peduncles 2 to 12, unequal, the 

 longer 1 to 3 inches long: spikes simple, usually oblong, loosely floivered: peri- 

 anth pale or somewhat tinged with brown, equalling the capsule : anthers 

 small, equalling the filaments : seed dark, ivith a irliite conical appendage some- 

 times half as long as the seed. — The type, together with the following varie- 

 ties, ranges from the Rocky Mountains westward and northward. 



Var. macrantha, Watson. Perianth longer, much exceeding the capsule: 

 anthers equalling or twice longer than the filaments : seed larger, the appendage 

 always short. — Bot. Calif, ii. 203. 



Var. SUbsessilis, Watson. Spikes solitary or few, nearly sessile, loose; 

 perianth-segments lax and scarious. — Bot. Calif, loc. cit. 



3. L. eampestris, DC. Similar to the preceding type, but usually less 

 villous: bracts short: spikes dense, short, and ovate: perianth-segments oflen 



