CXLI. JUNCACEiE. 1659 



Tribe I. Xerotesc — Perianth small, segments glume-like or scarious, sometimes the inner 

 ones petal-lilie. Anthers versatile, dorsifixed. 



* Flowers dioecious. Styles or stigmatic branches distinct to the base, or scarcely connate 

 throughout. 



Flowers dioecious. Style short with 3 recurved branches. Leaves in 

 radical tufts or along short leafy stems, not fringed above the sheath. . . 1. Xerotes. 



•• Fhwers hermaphrodite. Style filiform, stigma small. 



Perianth-segments all free. Ovary 3-celled, with few ovules in each cell. 



Flowers in long dense eylindrieal spikes, on a long scape or peduncle . . 2. Xanthoiiehjsa. 



Tribe II. Sitjuncese. — Perianth small, the segments all free aiid glume-like. Anthers 

 ■erect. Style toith 3 linear stigmatic branches. Leaves grass-like or terete, mostly radical or none. 



Ovary 1-celled, or more or less perfectly 3-oelled, with several often m&ny 



ovules to each placenta 3. JuNCua. 



Ovary 1-celled, with 3 erect ovules 4. Luzula. 



1. XEROTES, Banks. 

 (Referring to the dryness of the herbage.) 

 Flowers dioecious. Males : Perianth of 6 segments or lobes all equal and 

 similar, free or united to th* middle, or more frequently the 3 outer free from the 

 base thin and hyaline or searious, the 3 inner more petal-like and more united at 

 the base. Stamens 6, 3 attached to the base or centre of the 8 inner segments 

 or lobes, 3 alternating with them, all shorter than the perianth ; anthers versatile, 

 usually deeply lobed below their attachment and sometimes at the apex also, 

 the cells then quite distinct and dorsally attached,, opening in longitudinal slits. 

 Ovary rudimentary or entirely deficient. Female flower : Perianth persistent, 

 usually of a firmer consistence than in the males, of 6 equal and similar segments. 

 Stamens none or reduced to small elavate staminodia. Ovary sessile, 3-celled, 

 with 1 (or rarely 2 ?) erect ovules laterally attached in each cell ; style very short 

 or scarcely any, with 3 recurved stigmatic lobes. Capsule nearly globular, 

 surrounded by the persistent perianth, coriaceous, smooth and shining or 

 transversely wrinkled or rarely longitudinally striate, opening loculicidally in 

 3 valves. Seeds ovoid globular or somewhat angular when all three ripen ; testa 

 thin, adnate, not black; albumen rather hard; embryo linear or very short, 

 erect from the base of the seed. — Stems tufted on a very short or creeping rhizome 

 or stock, either densely leafy at the base only or slender elongated and leafy. 

 Scapes or peduncles either very short or the inflorescence sessile in the tufts of 

 radical leaves or at the ends of the leafy stems or more or less elongated below the 

 inflorescence. Flowers small, the males usually either in dense clusters or 

 solitary along the branches of a panicle, sessile or pedicellate within short scarious 

 bracts ; the female inflorescences either similar to the males or less branched or 

 reduced to single sessile globular heads, or rarely both sexes in dense globular 

 or oblong heads along a simple rhachis or connected into a long dense cylindrical 

 spike. 



■ The genus is nearly limited to Australia, one species only being also found in New Caledonia. 

 Some of the wide-spread species are very variable and difficult to define, and the difficulty is 

 often much increased by the extreme rarity of female specimens in collections ; and when 

 present, the uncertainty of their being correctly matched, the difference in habit, especially in 

 inflorescence, between the two sexes being sometimes very striking. 



Sect. I. Xiuzerotes. — Male flowers 'paniculate or racemose or clustered along u simple 

 or branched rhachis. Female inflorescence similar or more simple. Perianth-segments free 

 from the base in both sexes or in the males the inner ones only shortly united. Leaves densely 

 crowded or tufted on the very short or slightly elongated leafy stem (except in X. pauciflora). 

 Scapes or peduncles terminal. 



Series 1. Glomeratse. — Male flowers sessile and numerous in sessile clusters. Capsules 

 smooth or nearly so. 



Three of the stamens attached to the centre of the inner perianth-Segments 

 Bracts obtuse and short. 

 Perianth about IJ line long, all the segments free from the base, thin and 

 broad . . ' 1, X BanJcsii. 



