CLASS VI. OIIDEK I.J JUNCCS. 497 



Habitat.— Wei meadows and marshy places ; frequent. 

 Perennial; flowering in July. 



The three last are those only of our rushes that are used for do- 

 mestic purposes; but the uses to which they are now applied are few, 

 compared to what they were formerly, for they seem to have been an 

 article of great luxury, and were spread over the floors of palaces, in 

 the place of carpets, even until the time of Henry VIII., and were 

 applied to many other purposes ; but now their use is almost limited 

 to the making of door mats, baskets, and chair bottoms, and the 

 white internal substance for making the wicks of a kind of candle, 

 hence called rush light. 



6. J. Jiiiform'is, Linn. (Fig. 565.) Thread Rush. Stem naked, 

 thread shaped, finely striated ; sheaths at the base leafless ; panicle 

 simple, of few flowers ; segments of the perianth lanceolate, acute, 

 nearly equal, longer than the roundish obtuse short pointed capsule ; 

 stamens six. 



English Botany, t. 1175.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 162.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 164. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 274. 



Root with creeping underground stems, and very long stout branched 

 fibres. Stems tufted, very thin and slender, about a foot high, curved, 

 or somewhat drooping above, slightly glaucous green, smooth, very 

 finely striated in the lower part, and enveloped with numerous sheaths 

 of variable lengths, lanceolate, or terminating in a fine point, others 

 sometimes lengthened into leaf-like barren scapes. Panicle about the 

 middle of the stem, small, simple, of about eight flowers, on short slen- 

 der stalks. Perianth of six nearly equal lanceolate acute segments, of 

 a greenish colour, somewhat ribbed on the obtuse keel. Stamens six, 

 shorter than the perianth. Style very short, with spreading stigmas. 

 Capsule roundish ovate, very obtuse, with a short mucronate point, 

 shorter than the perianth, three celled, three valved, with numerous 

 small angular pale seeds. 



Habitat. — Moist, stony, or grassy places in mountainous districts, 

 but not common. On the margins of lakes in Cumberland, West- 

 moreland, and Lancashire. Ben Lawers — Mr. Dixon, and several 

 parts of Scotland — 3Ir. G. Don ; but Sir W. J. Hooker observes, " I 

 have never seen Scottish specimens. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



7. J. Bal'ticus, Willd. (Fig. 566.) Baltic Rush. Stem naked 

 smooth, obscurely striated ; sheaths at the base leafless ; panicle erect, , 

 loose, branched ; segments of the perianth lanceolate, acute, the inner 

 ones rather shorter and more obtuse, as long as the elliptical obtuse 

 mucronate capsule. 



Hooker in Botany, English Suppl. t. 2621. — Hooker, British Flora, 

 vol. i. p. 164. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 274. — ./. arcticus. — Hooker in 

 Flora Lond. t. 151. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 163. (exclu, squ. Willd. 

 and Wahl.) 



