108 JUNCACEAE (rush FAMILY) 



2-3 cm. long, glandular-pubescent as are also the oblong acute sepals: petals 

 dark blue, broad, obtuse, 2 cm. long, twice as long as the sepals; filaments once 

 or twice sharply folded on themselves and immersed in the copious wool arising 

 from their lowest segments: ovary ribbed with rows of glandular hairs. — East- 

 ern Wyoming. 



2. Tradescantia occidentalis Britton, Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 87. 

 1900. Stems soUtary, erect, simple, 3-8 dm. high: leaves hnear, involutely 

 folded; sheaths 1-4 cm. long: pedicels 1-2 cm. long, glabrous: sepals oblong or 

 elliptic, sparsely pilose-glandular, 8-10 mm. long: petals blue or reddish, 

 twice as long as the sepals: filaments nearly or quite straight, sparsely pilose 

 at base: ovary pubescent at summit. T. virginiana. {T. scopulorum Rose, 

 Contrib. Nat. Herb. 5: 205. 1899, as to the specimens from Colorado and north- 

 ward.) — From the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to Iowa. 



20. PONTEDERIACEAE Dumort. Pickerel Weed Family 



Aquatic herbs, with perfect more or less irregular flowers from a spathe. The 

 petal-like 6-merous perianth free from the 3-celled ovary; the 3 or 6 mostly 

 unequal or dissimilar stamens inserted in its throat. Fruit a perfectly or in- 

 completely 3-celled many-seeded capsule, or a 1-celled 1-seeded utricle. 



1. HETERAKTHERA Ruiz & Pav. Mud Plantain 



Creeping, floating, or submerged low herbs, in mud or shallow water, with a 

 l-few-flowered spathe bursting from the sheathing side or base of a petiole. 

 Perianth salver-form from a slender tube; the limb somewhat equally 6-parted, 

 ephemeral. Stamens 3, in the throat, usually unequal: anthers erect. Capsule 

 1-celled or incompletely 3-oelled by intrusion of the placentae, many-seeded. 



1. Heteranthera limosa (Sw.) Willd. Neue. Schrift. Ges. Nat. Fr. Berlin, 

 3: 439. 1801. Stems branched from the base, 1-3 dm. long: leaves oval or 

 ovate, on long petioles: flowers white or blue: anthers linear, often sagittate. — 

 Reaching the eastern border of our range. 



21. JUNCACEAE Vent. Rush Family 



Annual or perennial grass-like herbs. Stems simple, hollow or spongy. 

 Leaves alternate, sheathing, narrow, flat or terete. Flowers Uly-like in 

 structure, sedge-like in aspect, small, dry, perfect, disposed in terminal or 

 apparently lateral heads, spikes, subumbellate clusters, or panicles. Perianth 

 consisting of 6 distinct similar glume-Uke segments. Stamens 6 or sometimes 

 3. Ovary superior, 3 or sometimes 1-celled; stigmas 3, filiform; ovules 3 to 

 many. Fruit a loculicidally 3-valved capsljle. 



Leaves soft, flat; stems hollow; capsule 1-oelled and 3-seeded . . . ,1. Luzula. 

 Leaves stiff, terete or flat; stems usually Vrith spongy pith; capsule 3- or I-celled, 



many-seeded 2. Juncus 



1. LUZULA DC. 



Perennial herbs with simple hollow leafy stems, grass-like flat leaves and 

 numerous small flowers in loose involucrate umbels or panicles, or more or less 

 densely clustered or spicate. Floral bracts small and scarious. Stamens always 

 6. Capsule 1-oelled, with 3 parietal placentae and 1-3 seeds. (Juncoides.) 



Inflorescence an open panicle, the flowers solitary or in cluster* of 2-3 1. L. parviflora. 

 Inflorescence congested, capitate or spicate. 



Nodding, usually a single spike . . , , , . . 2. L. apicata. 



Erect, in 2-severol aubglobose or oblong heads , . , , , 3. L. intermedia. 



