RUSH FAMILT. 349 



Y. angUBtifblia, wild over the plains beyond the Mississippi, is smaller, 

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

 yellowish-white flowers. 



« ♦ Trunk arboresreiit, 2° -8° high in wild plants on the sanda of the coast 

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



Y. glori6sa. Trunk low, generally simple ; leaves coriaceous, smooth- 

 edged, slender-spiny tipped, 1 "- 2° long, 1' - li' wide ; flowers white, or pur- 

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



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

 old ; leaves very rigid, strongly spiny-tipped, with very rough-serrulate saw 

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



125. JUNCACEiE, 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-celIed or almost 3-oelIed, many-seeded. Herbage 



smooth : stems often leafless, generally pithy. 



2. LUZULA. Ovary and pod 1-ceUed, with 3 parietal placenta, 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, 

 merelu with sheaths at base, in tufts Jrvin matted running rootstocks: flowers 

 in a lateral sessile panicle, y, 



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

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



J. flliJ^rmis, of bogs and shores only N., is slender, pliant, l°-2o 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 "rootstoBkS, rigid stems 

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

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



§ 2. Gkasst-leaved RnSHES, with»stems bearing grass-like flat or thread- 

 shaped {rir-ver knotty) 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.-: 10-3" 

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



J. ripens. 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. 



3. bufibnius. Along all wet roadsides, &c. : stems low and slender, branch- 

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

 linear and awl-pointed. Q) ,.„.,,. .j ^ 



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

 l°-2° high, and a contracted panicle of chestnut-brliwh but partly greenish 

 flowers, the sepals blunt. 11 



