EUSH FAMILY. 349 



Y. angnstifdlia, wild oyer the plains beyond the Mississippi, is smaller, 

 with erect and narrow linear leaves, few threads on their white margins, and 

 yellowish-white flowers. 



* * Trunk arborescent, 2° -8° high in mid plants on the sands of the coast 

 S., or much higher in conservatories, naked below : no threads to the leaves. 



T. gloridsa. Trunk low, generally simple; leaves coriaceous, smooth- 

 edged, slender-spiny tipped, l°-2°long, I'-l^' wide; flowers white, or pur- 

 plish-tinged outside, in a short-peduncled panicle. 



Y. aloifolia, Spanish-Bayonet. Trunk 4° -20° high, branching when 

 old ; leave.3 very rigid, strongly spiny-tipped, with very rough-serrulate saw- 

 like edges, 2° or more long, 1^' - 2' wide ; the short panicle nearly sessile. 



125. JUNCACE.a3, RUSH FAMILY. 



Plants with the appearance and herbage of Sedges and Grasses, 

 yet with flowers of the structure of the Lily Family, having a com- 

 plete perianth of 6 parts, 3 outer and 3 inner, but greenish and 

 glume-like. Stamens 6 or 3, style 1 : stigmas 3. 



1. JUNCUS. Ovary and pod 3-ceUed or almost 3-celled, many-seeded. Herbage 



smooth : stems often leafless, generally pithy. 



2. LUZULA. Ovary and pod l-cefled, with 3 parietal plaoentse, and one seed to 



each. Stems and leaves often soft-hairy. 



1. JUNCUS, RUSH, BOG-RUSH. (The classical Latin name, from the 

 verb meaning to join, rushes being used for bands . ) Flowers summer. — We 

 have more than 30 species, chiefly in bogs or wet grounds, most of them diffi- 

 cult and little interesting to the beginner, — to be studied in the Manual and 

 in Dr. Engelmann's monograph. The following are the commonest. 



§ 1. Leafless Rushes, with naked and. jointless round stems, wholly leafless, 

 merely loith sheaths at base, in tufisfrom matted running rootstocks : flowers 

 in a lateral sessile panicle, y, 



J". efftlSUS, Common Rush, in low grounds ; has soft and pliant stems 

 2° - 4° high, panicle of many greenish flowers, 3 stamens, and very blunt pod. 



J. flliformis, of bogs and shores only N., is slender, pliant, l°-2° high, 

 with few greenish flowers, 6 stamens, and a broadly ovate blunt but short- 

 pointed pod. 



J. Balticus, of sandy shores N. ; has very strong rootst/5cks, rigid stems 

 2° - 3° high, a loose panicle of larger (2" long) and chestnut-colored with green- 

 ish flowers, 6 stamens, and oblong blunt but pointed deep-brown pod. 



§ 2. Grasst-leaved Rushes, with stems bearing grass-like flat or thread- 

 shaped {m.ver knotly) leaves, at least near the base : panicle terminal. 



* Flowers crowded in heads on the divisions of the panicle : stems flattened : 



leaves flat ; stamens 3. 



J. margin&tus. Sandy wet soil, from S. New England S. & W. : l°-30 

 high; leaves long linear; heads several-flowered, brownish or purplish. 21 



J. rfepens. Miry banks S. : spreading or soon creeping, 4' -6' high; leaves 

 short linear ; heads of green flowers few in a loose leafy panicle. 



* * Flowers single on the ultimate branches of the panicle, or rarely clustered: 



stamens 6 : leaves slender, 



J. bufbniUS. Along all wet roadsides, &c. : stems low and slender, branch- 

 ing, 3' - 9' high ; greenish flowers scattered in a loose panicle ; sepals lance- 

 linear and awl-pointed. 



J. Ger&rdl, Black Grass of salt marshes : in tufts, with rather rigid stems 

 I°-2° high, and a contracted panicle of chestnut-brown but partly greenish 

 flowers, the sepals blunt, y. 



