286 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



JUNCACEiE 



Usually stiff herbs with narrow, grass-like leaves and small 

 herbaceous or dry flowers in terminal clusters. Perianth regular, 

 dry and calyx-like, of 6 segments. Stamens 6, or rarely 3. Styles 

 single, with 3 stigmas. Capsule i or 3-celled, opening in 3 valves. 

 Seed small. A family spread over the whole of the globe. 



JuNCUS L. Rush. 



Leaves stiff and glabrous, usually cylindrical, at least at the 

 tips, or grooved. Flowers usually in irregular panicles, unequally 

 branched, with a dry, sheathing bract under each branch, cluster, 

 or flower. Capsule 3-celled. Seeds numerous. 



Nearly 200 species, dispersed over the greater part of the globe. 



Juncus -fiUformis L. 



Rhizome creeping, throwing up many tufts. Stems 6-18 inches 

 long, wiry, filiform, pale green, faintly striate. Cyme few-flowered, 

 crowded, pale, small, halfway up the stem. Perianth-segments 

 lanceolate, exceeding the turbinate, obtuse, mucronate capsule. 

 Stamens 6. 



Wet, stony places, margins of lakes, etc., in the Alps and sub-Alps. 

 June to August. 



Distribution. — Alps, Vosges, Cevennes, Pyrenees, most of 

 Europe ; Northern Asia, N. America. Rare in Britain. 



Juncus bufonius L. Toad-rush. 



A very variable and often quite small annual Rush, pale-coloured, 

 with many stems, often in dense tufts from i-io inches high, 

 branching and flowering almost from the base. Leaves chiefly 

 radical, slender, and rather short. Flowers solitary or 2 or 3 together 

 with short leaf-like bracts. Perianth-segments narrow and pointed, 

 pale green, with scarious edges, the 3 outer ones longer than the 

 others. Capsule oblong, shorter than the perianth. 



Wet places, spread widely over most of the globe from sea-level 

 to the sub-alpine zone, and flowering all the summer. Abundant 

 in Britain. 



Juncus compressus Jacq. 



Stems 6-18 inches high, erect, slightly compressed at the base, 

 with few leaves near the base, and shorter than the stem, and i or 

 2 leaves higher up, all very narrow and grooved. Flowers singly or 

 in small clusters in a rather loose terminal panicle, shining brown in 

 colour. Perianth-segments obtuse, short. Capsule obtuse, ovoid, 

 with a very short style. 



Wet, marshy places, roadsides, etc., up to 6000 feet. June to 

 August. 



Distribution, — Europe and Northern Asia, British, 



