ENGELMANN—NORTH AM. SPECIES OF JuNcuUS. 431 
with such different length of tail that only the absence of 
any other diagnostic characters can induce us to consider 
them as belonging to one and the same apoiia Much less 
gene 
done by Desvaux, who comprised in his genus Marsipposper- 
um all Junci with tailed seeds. Even E. Meyer’s (in Synop- 
sis J uncorum, 1822, and in Ledebour’s Flora Rossica, 1853) 
separation of the species with tailless seeds as a second section 
is unnatural, as not only tail-seeded kinds are found in all the 
great groups, but also species with intermediate seeds exist, 
which it would be difficult enough to place properly. R. Brown 
(Prod. Nov. Holl. p. 258) settles the whole question in the 
following pithy sentence: Mee secernende sunt ew que 
seminibus gaudent scobiformibus, a pat que in pluri- 
bus utrinque laxa, in hisce valde elon 
The size of the seed varies from 0. % S 2.0 lines in length, 
it mostly ranges between 0.2 and 0.3 lines, and rarely reaches 
4 lines; the tailed seeds are usually larger than the others, 
averaging from 0.5 to 2.0 lines in length; even without the 
appendage, J. trifidus has the bodies of the seeds of 0. Dd, J. 
Ss 
the same species so constant, that it will be vines l rs dwell a 
little longer ir ace a i 
and rarely nearly, smooth, when m ed fifty or sixty times. 
We can almost always s discover a ribs, more or less 
close together, from 8 or 12 to 30 or 40 or more around the 
seed; as it is aed re count ed ribs all around these small 
bodies, and as an approximate designation is quite sufficient, 
only the number visible on one side may be counted. These 
ribs are very marked, sharply elevated, in J. marginatus (sem- 
ina costata), or they are reduced to more delicate lines in J. 
n n 
seeds may be termed costato-lineolata, or by fewer, more 
prominent cross-bars, semina costato-reticul 
When the ribs are er and wider apart, and united by 
transverse hts so as to form somewhat rectangular meshes, 
I call the seeds semina watuaiine: The area of these meshes 
o perpendicular lines: semina praes patos reticulata 
rete very few instances I find an pate = indistinct retic- 
ulation: semina irregulariter sub 
A large number of Junci exhibit a ver delicaip but ae 
transverse reticulation without {in fully ripe seeds) v 
re retr 
= delicate transverse heh mes, amy as one or 
li: 
