498 JUNCUS. [CLASS VI. ORDER I. 



Roots with very long creeping undergrouud stems, putting out nu- 

 merous flowering stems in long rows, roots long, stout, fibrous, 

 branched. Stems from eighteen inches to two feet high, erect, 

 round, smooth, finely and obscurely striated, more or less spirally, 

 slender, tapering upwards into a sharp point, and enveloped at the 

 base in numerous smooth shining pale brown dry membranous sheaths, 

 obtuse, the upper larger ones terminating in a bristly point. Panicle 

 from three to five inches below the summit, erect, small, some of the 

 flowers on simple footstalks, others elevated on from one to three 

 angular branches, having ovate-lanceolate pale brown shining mem- 

 branous bracteas at the axis of the division, as have also the flowers at 

 their base. Perianth of six ovate-lanceolate nearly equal pieces, a 

 dark smooth shining brown colour, the three outer ones with a broad 

 keel terminating in the point, the three inner ones rather shorter, ob- 

 tusely pointed, the keel narrower, and terminating in a bristly point. 

 IStamens Sihovii half as long as the perianth, the filaments short. Anther 

 large, elliptical, yellow. Style erect, its base persistent, and forming a 

 mucro to the capsule, which is rather shorter than the perianth, ellip- 

 tical, ovate, scarcely angular, obtuse, the sides marked w ith inequalities, 

 apparently from the pressure of the seeds, smooth, shining, a dark 

 chesnut brown, three celled, three valvecl, and many seeded, the seeds 

 small, ovate, brown. 



Habitat. — Sandy sea shores in Scotland ; very rare. Near Dundee. 

 — Mr. T. Drummond. Farr and Cape Wrath, Sutherland. — Dr. 

 Graham. Aberdeenshire. — Dr. A. Murray. Stotfield, six miles from 

 Elgin, and between Findhorn and Spey, on the banks of the Lossie, 

 seven miles from the sea ; and at St. Andrew's, Llanbridge, where the 

 sea formerly reached. — Rev. G. Gordon. 



Perennial ; flowering in July. 



This species is nearly allied to the /. arcticus, Willd. which is a 

 smaller more rigid species, having the flowers in a simple not branched 

 panicle, the segments of the perianth more unequal, broader, and the 

 capsule oval and more acutely angular. 



*** Barren stems ivanting. Leaves plane, or grooved above. Infio- 

 . rescence a terminal head, or on a solitary terminal Jlotver. Seeds 

 appendiculated. 



a. Stem leafy. 

 8. J. casta'neus. Smith. (Fig. 567.) Clustered Alpine Rush. Stem 

 simple, rounded; leaves channeled below, flat above, keeled at the 

 back and sheathed at the base ; flowers numerous, in one or two ter- 

 minal heads, shorter than the leafy bractea ; segments of the perianth 

 lanceolate, acute, about half as long as the stamens, and oblong acute 

 capsule. 



English Botany, t. 900,— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 173.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 166. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 275. 

 Root with short creeping underground stems, and numerous long 



