1G70 CXLI. JUNCACEiE. [Lunula.. 



pi?oduced beyond the seed. Embryo small, near the hilum, in an indenture of 

 the almost farinaceous albumen. — Perennial herbs, usually tufted. Leaves grass- 

 like, chiefly radical, often fringed with long fine white hairs. Flowers clustered or' 

 distinct, the clusters in irregular unequally branched compound vimbels or- 

 panicles sometimes contracted into heads, each flower subtended by a scarious^ 

 bract and enclosed at the base in 1 or 2 broad short scarious bracteoles. 



The genus, nearly allied to Juncus, is similarly spread over the greater part of the globe,, 

 chiefly abundant in temperate regions and more common in woods and pastures than iu 

 marshes. 



1. 1m. campestris (a field plant), DC. ; Kiinth, Knitm. iii. 307 ; Benth. Fl.Axistr^ 

 vii. 123. Stock usually tufted and often knotted with the short hardened bases 

 of the leaves. Stems from a few inches to above 1ft. high, with a tuft of radical! 

 grass-like leaves 2 to 4in. long, rarely above 2 lines broad, usually bordered by 

 long fine white hairs, and often 1 leaf higher up, besides a long leafy bract under- 

 the inflorescence terminating the stem. Flowers in dense clusters, of which/ 

 usually 1 or 2 sessile or almost sessile, surrounded by several others on peduncles, 

 varying from ^ to lin., but sometimes all the clusters collected into a sessile^ 

 pyramidal head. Bracts shorter than the flowers, usually shining white andi 

 contrasting with the brown perianth. Perianth-segments very acute, 1 to IJ 

 line long, dark or light brown and often with scarious margins. Capsule very 

 obtuse, not exceeding the perianth. — E. Br. Prod. Addend.; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm^ 

 ii. 68 ; E. Mey. in PL Preiss. ii. 48. 



Hab.: Southern localities. 



Order GXLII. PALMiE. 



Flowers unisexual or rarely hermaphrodite. Perianth inferior and persistent, 

 in the females, of 6 usug,lly dry or rigid segments in 2 series, the outer ones- 

 usually imbricate or united in a 3-toothed or 3-lobed cup, the inner usually 

 longer, valvate in the males, valvate or imbricate in the females. Stamens in. 

 the males 3, 6, or indefinite, attached to the receptacle and often surrounding 

 a rudimentary or imperfect ovary ; filaments usually short ; anthers erect, 

 attached at the base or shortly above the base and somewhat versatile, with 

 2 parallel cells opening inwards in longitudinal slits. Staminodia in the females 

 when present and stamens in the hermaphrodite flowers usually 6, attached to- 

 the base of the perianth. Ovary in the females superior, either 3-eelled or 

 divided into 8 distinct carpels, or in some genera 1-celled from the first and in 

 many genera only 1 cell fertile. Style usually very short or completely divided 

 into 3 short thick stigmas or lobes stigmatic inside, at first erect afterwards^ 

 spreading, rarely columnar with 3 small terminal stigmas. Ovules solitary or 

 rarely 2 in each cell or carpel, erect and anatropous or rarely laterally attached or- 

 pendulous and amphitropous or orthotropous. Fruit an indehiseent drupe or berry,, 

 the exoearp often thick, succulent fleshy or spongy and fibrous, sometimes thin and 

 hard, the endocarp membranous crustaceous or hard and bony. Seed solitary or 

 sometimes 2 or 3 ; testa thin or crustaceous, adnate to the albumen or sometimea 

 more or less to the endocarp ; hilum orbicular oblong or shortly linear, basal and 

 oblique or rarely lateral or terminal, the raphe sometimes variously ramified.. 

 Albumen hard cartilaginous or white and brittle, entire ruminate or excavated on 

 one side. Embryo small in a small cavity either basal and near the hilum or 

 dorsal and more or less distant from it. — Woody plants either with long weak 

 or climbing stems and alternate leaves, or with an erect stem or caudex often 

 very tall with a terminal crown of large leaves which in decaying leave the stem 

 covered with scales or fibres, or marked with annular scars. Leaves large, either 

 pinnately or palmately divided into long lobes or segments, rarely bipinnate. 

 Flowers usually numerous and small for the plant, in simple spikes or branched 



