RUSH FAMILY. 349 



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

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

 yellowish-white flowers. 



* * Trunk arhorescetitj 2° — 8° Mgh in wild plants on the sands of the coast 

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



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

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

 plish-tinged outside, in a short-peduncledpanicle. 



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

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

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



125. JUNCACE.ffi, 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-oeIled or almost 3-celled, many-seeded. Herbage 



smooth : stems often leafless, generally pithy. 

 3. LUZULA. Ovary and pod 1-celled, with 3 parietal placentae, and one seed to 



each. Stems and leaves often soft-hairy. 



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

 verb meaning to join, rushes being used for hands. ) 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 Hushes, with naked and jointless round , stems, wholly leafless, 

 merely with sheaths at base, in tufts fiom matted running rootsiocks : Jlawers 

 in a lateral sessile panicle. 21. 



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

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



J. filif6rtais, of bogs and shores only N., is slender, pliant, l°-2° high, 

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

 pointed pod. 



J. Balticus, of sandy shores N. ; has very strong rootstoeks, 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. Geasst-leaved Rushes, vnth stems bearing grass-like flat or thread- 

 shaped (never 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. : l°-3° 

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



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. 



J. brifbnius. 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. (1) 



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

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

 flowers, the sepals blunt. 2/ 



