CLASS VI. OttDEU t.] JUNCUS. 499 



branched fibrous roots. Stem erect, solitary', about a foot high, roundish, 

 hollow, quite smooth, of a dark green, leafy at the base, and with 

 one or two upon the stem. Leaves green, from three lo six inches long, 

 smooth, channeled, and dilated at the base into membranous sheaths, 

 flattish upwards, roundly keeled at the back, the internal cellular 

 substance with distant transverse partitions, the lower leaves subulate, 

 those of the stem thinner and flatter. Injlorescence terminal, of one 

 or two compact heads when there are two, one of them is elevated 

 above the other on a smooth somewhat angular branch, shorter than 

 the leafy bractea, tlie heads of fioivers varying from three to eight 

 sessile, or on sliort footstalks from the base, a thin membranous scale, 

 lanceolate, acute. Perianth of six lanceolate acutely pointed seg- 

 ments, of a smooth shining dark brown colour, the three outer ones 

 rather longer than tlie others, with a broad obtuse keel, greenish, ter- 

 minating in the point, the three inner segments thinner, paler, more ' 

 membranous, more obtuse, and the keel is smaller. Stamens on slen- 

 der filaments, about half as long again as the perianth. Anthers 

 elliptic, yellow. Style erect, breaking off at a joint, the base forming 

 a persistent point to the elliptic oblong acute capsule, which is about 

 half as long again as the perianth, of a dark smooth shining brown 

 colour, somewhat triangular, bursting with three valves, three celled, 

 and many seeded, the seeds small, pale brown, each enveloped in a 

 pale thin membranous coat, which is loose and elongated in a saccate 

 manner at each extremity. 



Habitat. — Marshy places, especially in a micaceous soil in elevated 

 mountainous districts ; rare, mostly in Scotland, on the elevated moun- 

 tains of the Breadalbane rocks at the head of Glen Callander, in 

 Braemar. — Dr. Graham. In the County of Durham. — Rev. — Har- 

 riman. » 



Perennial ; flowering in July. 



b. Stem naked. 



9. J. biglu'mis, Linn. (Fig. 568.) Two-fiowered Rush. Stem erect, 

 simple, slender; leaves radical, linear, subulate, compressed, the base 

 dilated into sheaths ; heads of two flowers, one elevated on a pedicle, 

 shorter than the foliaceous bractea ; segments of the perianth oblong, 

 obtuse, shorter than the obtuse capsule. 



English Botany, t. 896.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 172. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol i. p. 168.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 275. 



Root of long slender branched fibres. Stem erect, mostly solitary, 

 not lufted, about three inches high, slender, smooth, rounded, more or 

 less deeply striated towards the base, and somewhat compressed, naked 

 above, hut the base enveloped in the sheaths of the leaves, which are 

 all radical, erect, smooth, about half as long as the stem, awl-shaped, 

 flattened above, somewhat keeled in the lower part at the back, and 

 slightly channelled above the base, dilated into a thin smooth shining 

 membranous sheath, enveloping the base of the stem, and more or less 



