264 NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 
outer ones. From its two allies it is distinguished principally by the shape and proportion of its capsule, and the 
smaller and differently shaped seeds. 
Varr. a. and 8. are distinguished from the others by their small, usually 3-4-flowered heads, smaller flowers, 
which are 1j-1} and, only in Lake Superior specimens of a. 1? lines long, and the form of the smaller seeds. [476] 
These seeds are 0.25-0.33 line long, 24 diameters being equal to the length ; appendages about equal to the dia- 
meter, so that the whole seed has a length of 0.40-0.60 line ; 7-9 ribs visible, connected by delicate cross-lines 
ar. a. is readily known by its low stature, rarely over a foot high, erect, dark colored panicle (1-4 inches long 
and 3-14 inches wide) and elongated capsules, and therefore longer fruit-heads ; the sepals are usually acute, but in 
some forms from Pennsylvania and from New Hampshire I have found them obtuse. American botanists have 
usually taken this form for J. acwminatus, Michx.; but Michaux’s plant is very different and, moreover, comes from 
South Carolina, while the present variety is, I believe, not found south of Pennsylvania. Prof. Porter gets in the 
mountains of that State a low form with more patulous lighter colored panicles, and more obtuse sepals, Hb. norm. 
78, bh ae seems to form a transition to the next variety. 
ar. 8. stands in habit and stature nearest to var. y., but its small, short heads, obtuse sepals, and short capsules 
teenisube it at once from that and from var. a.; our botanists have sometimes confounded it with J. dedilis or with 
J, articulatus, from both of which however the characters enumerated readily distinguish it. Stem 14-2} feet high ; 
panicle 4~9 inches long and proportionately wide. Mr. C. E. Smith gets a form at Tinnicum, near Philadelphia, 
which unites this with var. y, having the seeds of this, but the greater number of flowers (10~12), the larger heads, 
and the pointed sepals, of the other. 
ar. y. is a rather rare plant, and does not seem to have attracted the attention of botanists, although it had been 
ected, especially about Philadelphia and in New Jersey, until Mr. Bebb of Washington and Mr. Smith of Philadel- 
phia studied it with a great deal of attention. The shortness of the appendages had induced some to place it away from 
its close alliances and with or near J. acuminatus, but I cannot entertain any doubt but that it is so closely allied to 
var. 6. that it can barely be kept apart from it, the length of the appendages being quite variable even in seeds from 
the same vapsule. The whole plant, however, is more delicate, lighter green ; the stem weak, and more usually decum- 
bent ; the panicle very loose, commonly with long and often horizontally-spreading slender branches ; heads pale, 8- 
15-20-flowered ; flowers as large as in the next, 14-2 lines long ; sepals always subulate and very acute, and often only 
I-nerved ; capsule more commonly acute or acutate, as long or mostly longer than the sepals; seeds 0. ae 36 line 
long, thicker than in the next variety, the length being peqriit to 2~23 diameters ; seed with appendages 0 
0.50 or very rarely 0.60 line long ; appendages less thin the diameter of the seed, often only half as long; “ey [477] 
ribs visible, usually very distinct, with cross-striation and an approach to reticulation.— A slender form is dis- 
tributed i in Hb. norm. 80 and 81, a more rigid one is Hb. norm. 82, but both run together. 
Var. 8. is the most polymorphous of “ait the forms of this species; it is stouter, taller, and more rigid than the 
other varieties, and thus approaches more nearly to the following species. The panicle 3-6 or sometimes as much as 
9 or 10 inches long, and 2-5-7 inches wide, with somewhat spreading but rarely horizontal rays, is either much 
branched and bears smaller (5-8-20-flowered) but more numerous heads, or it is more simple, with larger (30-40 and 
in some Delaware specimens even 80 or 90-flowered) and fewer heads; it is usually loose, but sometimes quite com- 
pact ; specimens from South Carolina, Hb. norm. 85, have large green heads in a decompound panicle. Flowers 15-2 
lines long, greenish, at last with the capsules light brown; sepals generally 1-3 or sometimes 5-nerved, very acute, or 
rarely somewhat obtusish, usually quite unequal, or as an excéption, nearly equal in length ; capsule prismatic, and 
usually obtusish and mucronate, as long as or mostly longer than the sepals, sometimes acutate and elongate. Seeds 
slender, and either large with shorter appendages, or smaller and thinner and with longer tails; the former are 0.30- 
0.46 line long, length equal to 2} diameters, with the appendages 0.60-1.00 line long; the more slender seeds are of 
the same total length, but the body of the seed is a little shorter (0.25-0.35 line long) and its length is equal to nearly 
3 diameters ; 8-10 or 15 ribs or striz are visible on one side of the seed. — A curious form with branched heads, the 
single branches being elongated into spikes, was found by A. Commons near Salisbury, Maryland (see p. 427). Mr. 
Ravenel has collected this species in South Carolina with often more than three stamens: Hb. norm. 87.— This 
variety is the plant which by most American botanists has been taken for Meyer’s J. paradozus; but I have shown 
above (p- 462) that Meyer’s plant, sepalis “exterioribus longioribus,” must be what I lave designated as J. acwminatus, 
var. cannot have been meant for our plant, the exterior sepals of which are shorter. Meyer’s name was 
not given in reference to the curious seeds, but to the frequent foliaceous excrescences of his plant, which seem to be 
quite rare, if not unknown, in the present species. 
45. J.caupatus, Chapm. FI. S. St. 495: caulibus (2-3-pedalibus) poets oe foliisque rigidis levibus ; 
paniculee composite seu decomposite ramis suberectis ; capitulis pauci-(2-5)flo palis lanceolatis 3-5 
nerviis, exterioribus brevibus acutis stamina 3-6 xquantibus, interioribus subulatis aie ovario lineari- [478] 
lanceolato in stylum perbrevem sensim abeunte, stigmatibus exsertis ; capsula obtuse triangulata pyramidata 
