i ai ae 
NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 259 
leafy degenerations of the flower-heads so common in var. legitimus. La Harpe, who describes J. paradoxus from 
Pennsylvanian specimens, speaks of the sepals as being nearly equal to the capsule, and of the seeds as ovoid. Why 
both, Meyer as well as La Harpe, should have separated their J. pallescens or acuminatus from this J. paradoxus is not 
very clear ; they have evidently seen very few or single specimens only, and seem to have laid too much stress on the 
slight difference in the length of the sepals. 
The extreme forms of this variable plant might readily be taken for distinct species were the intermediate on 
wanting. All the forms produce from a short rootstock few or many erect or somewhat ascending, rather weak pile 
in var. 6.), terete or slightly compressed stems, rarely (except in var. y. and 6.) over two feet, and sometimes less than 
one foot high. The bracts are broad, membranaceous, and (the outer ones at least) awned ; heads and flowers are of 
different sizes, but the sepals always regularly lance-subulate and very acute or almost awned, but not rigid, and, with 
rare exceptions, equal in length ; only in some few specimens of var. legitimus I have seen the outer a little longer 
than the inner ones. Capsules as long as or longer than the sepals, pale green to straw-colored or light brownish, with 
parietal placentz on the lower half of the valves. Seeds obovate or oblanceolate, acute or apiculate at both ends, 0.20- 
0.25 line long, the length being equal to about 2} diameters, of a yellowish or light brown color and apparently semi- 
ee neatly reticulated, and 6 or 7 ribs visible on one side. 
a. legitimus is the most variable of all the forms of this species, but is always readily recognized by the 
larger dies. 1.5-2.0 lines long, , and the ovate-prismatic obtusish mucronate capsule of the length of the sepals. 
pound and the latter fewer-flowered north and eastward, while some Illinois (Z. Hall, Hb. norm. 55) and Texas 
specimens (‘‘ Hog-bed prairies” on the Guadaloupe, Wright, Guadaloupe to Matamoras, Berlandier 1571 and 2556 [466] 
in part) have few (3-8) large globose 20-50-flowered heads. Capsule rarely excioding the calyx, and then ap- 
proaching var. 8. Seeds variable within the limits of the species, slender, or sometimes thick. Hb. norm. 56 is a taller 
and 57 aslenderer form with fewer flowered heads, from Michigan, Deglow: 58 and 59 are what Meyer named J. 
parudoxus, the former a smaller-flowered form from S. Carolina, Ravenel, the latter a larger-flowered one from Delaware, 
‘ommons. 
r. 8. debilis is distinguished by the mostly very weak stem, 4-1} feet high, sometimes reclining, and even 
decumbent and rooting ; panicle loose-flowered, 3-6 inches long ; flowers 1.2-1.5 lines long ; capsule very pale, more 
or less protruding beyond the calyx ; seeds the smallest in the species. A rather small but rigid form comes from 
South Carolina, Hb. norm, 60, Rewind: and a similar autumnal = in which the heads by renewed vegetation of their 
axis degenerate into spikes, has been sent by the same botanist, i ‘ 
Var. y. diffusissimus is stouter, 2-24 feet high, with a sale 8 or 9 inches long and fully as wide ; nee 5 
lines in eee flowers 1} lines, or, with the straw-colored radiating capsules, fully 2} lines long ; seeds as 
ar. 8. vhibehiei is a very different looking plant, which in the hot Nelumbium swamps of the Mississippi ‘Acton 
grows even 4 feet high, with a stem 3 lines in diameter and leaves in proportion, which, however, do not reach beyond 
the base of the inflorescence ; panicle 6-10 inches long and a little less across, with fruit-heads only 2 lines in diam- 
eter ; flowers smaller than in the other forms, 1.1-1.2 lines long; and capsules more obtuse than in the others, with a 
short mucro ; seeds among the larger ones. — The specimens distributed in Hb. norm. 62 are, owing to the very dry 
season, not so well developed as the plant is often seen, nor did the fruit mature at all in that or the following year. It 
i3 an interesting fact observed by me for many years, that, if not in the whole Mississippi Valley, at least in this neigh- 
borhood, our ponds and lakes become lower every year, their rich vegetation is becoming extinct, and many have dried 
up altogether. Our beautiful Nelumbium, which twenty and ten years ago was an ornament to many sheets of water 
on hill as well as lowland in this vicinity, hiding them under their broad velvety leaves, and from the end of June to 
the middle of August dotting them with their splendid cream-white flowers, is fast disappearing in consequence of the 
retrocession of those waters, and with it its companions the Sagittarie, the Spargania, the Junci, the Scirpi, the 
Zizania, and many of their minor attendants. But what botany and beauty loses cultivation gains, and, above all, 
the health of the neighborhood. 
40. J, BRACHYCARPUS, n. sp.: caulibus e rhizomate crasso horizontali paucis erectis (1-2) es [467] 
rigidis teretibus ; panicula e capitulis globosis m multi-(30-50-100)-floris paucis seu pluribus simplici se 
posita conferta ; sepalis lanceolato-subulatis, interioribus quam exteriora multo brevioribus stamina 3 puis ee 
triangulato-ovatam acuminato-rostratam unilocularem equantibus seu paulo superantibus; antheris lineari-oblongis 
filamento multo brevioribus ; stigmatibus subsessilibus ovarium ovatum acuminatum fere equantibus inclusis; sem- 
inibus parvis oblanceolatis obovatisve utrumque acutatis areis leviusculis reticulatis. — J. cryptocarpus, Bebb in litt. 
n the Mississippi Valley from central Ohio, Sullivant, Michigan, Folwell, Bigelow, Hb. norm. 74, ip Illinois, Bebb, 
Hall, Hh, norm. 63, to Missouri! Kentucky, Short, Mississippi, Hilgard, Louisiana, Hale, and Texas, Berlandier 309, 313, 
1569, 1573, and 2556 in part, Lindheimer ; also, if the locality is gp ite reported, near Thardetoes, S.C., B 
(distributed as J. echinatus). — Flowers in May and June, in Texas in April. — On one side this species is allied to the 
large-headed forms of J. a:wminatus, and on the other much more closely to J. scirpoides, with both of which it has 
