NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 239 
again with a leaf-bud, but never, so far as I know, with a third flower. Thus we have the complete 
transition from the single-flowered to the species in which the flowers are grouped into heads. In 
these each bract bears in its axil a flower, in centripetal succession, the uppermost minute bracts 
remaining sterile in the centre of the head. 
The single-flowered Junci bear panicles, or, as E. Meyer and many botanists after him called 
them, anthele, of different form and development. In some species (¢. g. in the common forms of 
J. tenuis and J. dichotomus) the panicle has often the shape of an almost regularly dichotomous 
cyme, or at least the main branches are dichotomously divided ; in most other species this regu- 
larity is considerably obscured by the development of many elongated branches from a short 
axis, which often almost seem to constitute an umbel, but which are mostly of very different [427] 
length, the lower ones being by far the longer. These rays or branches often repeat the 
development of the main axis several times, or are regularly dichotomously divided, or they assume 
the appearance of one-sided spikes with lateral inflorescence, somewhat after the fashion of the 
Borraginee. A remarkable example of this is furnished by J. tenuis, var. secundus, which form also 
proves that this unilateral development of the inflorescence can by no means constitute specific 
distinction, as a series of intermediate forms are not wanting. We observe a similar condition in 
J. Balticus and the var. Pacificus; the Eastern form has the ordinary panicle, while that of the 
Pacific coast bears on the branches unilateral flowers. 
In many others, and especially in all those that have knotted leaves, the flowers are arranged in 
heads. These heads consist of few, or are (often in J. pelocarpus) reduced to single flowers, or they 
bear a great many, and the different forms of the same species often vary immensely in this respect. 
Thus we find from 2 or 3 to 50 flowers in each head of the different forms of J. pallescens, 6 or 9 to 
100 in the forms of J. nodosus, and 2 or 3 to 80 or 90 in J. Canadensis. These heads are single, or 
composed of several heads crowded together, when they appear lobed. I have seen the axis of the 
heads abnormally elongated, thus changing them into spikes 9-12 lines in length in three different 
species, all found in the southern States. In all of them the lower flowers seem to remain sterile, 
and only the uppermost ones bear fruit ; or, after the earliest flowers have performed their functions, 
the axis, perhaps in a wet season, continues to grow and produces a second crop of flowers. J. cylin- 
dricus, Curtis, is such a spicate form of J. marginatus; I have also seen it in J. pallescens, var. frater- 
nus, and most beautifully developed in J. Canadensis, var. longicaudatus. In this last specimen 
numerous rays form a rather compact almost level-topped umbel, and each ray bears a head of 3 to 
5 or 6 sessile, diverging spikes. The heads are either single, terminating the stem like the head of 
an Allium, or they form a more or less compound inflorescence similar to that of the single flowers. 
Flowers. — The flowers of these plants consist normally of 5 circles, each of 3 component parts ; 
3 outer and 3 inner perigonial leaves, which we call, on account of their herbaceous texture, sepals ; 
3 outer and 3 inner stamens and 3 carpellary leaves; each of the circles alternating with the next 
one, so that the 6 stamens stand before the 6 sepals, and the 3 carpels before the 3 outer sepals ; but 
the 3 stigmas, as well as the valves of the capsule, before the 3 inner sepals. The third circle, con- 
sisting of the 3 inner stamens, is sometimes wanting. Only in one instance, in the only 
species of the sub-genus Juncellus, I find each circle consisting of two parts only,a curious [428] 
and rare arrangement in a monocotyledonous plant. 
In place of flowers we find, in some species with articulate leaves, leafy buds or shoots as the 
result of retrograde metamorphosis, or as the morbid product of the oviposition of the Livia Jun- 
corum or some  sikea insect. They are most common in J. pelocarpus, which, from this peculiarity, 
has been named viviparus and abortivus; in J. pallescens, var. fraternus, which therefore got the 
name J, paradoxus, and in J. nodosus genuinus. 
Sepals. — The always persistent sepals furnish important characteristics. The exterior and 
interior ones are sometimes similar, but more frequently dissimilar; the former usually carinate or 
