HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA 227 



w i ^ Flowers more or less panicle a. 



182. JUNCTTS. L. Xutt. Gen. 335. 

 [Latin, jungo, to join ; from its being used to tie or bind objects together.] 



Perianth deeply 6-parted, or rather of 6 glumaceous persistent sepals, 

 bibracteate at base. Stamens 3 or 6. Ovary superior ; stigmas 3, sub- 

 sessile. Capsule mostly 3-celled, 3-valved ; valves with the dissepi- 

 ments in the middle. Seeds numerous, attached to the inner edge of 

 the dissepiments. 



Herbaceous: stem culm-like, naked, or leafy, often nodose; leaves subterete and 

 nodose, or channelled, flat and grass-like; flowers corymbose-paniculate. Nat. 

 Ord. 244. Lindl. Juxce.s. 



■j- Culms naked ; the sterile ones resembling terete leaves. Panicle 



lateral. 



1. J. effusus, L. Culm terete, striate, soft; panicle decompound, 

 loose, spreading; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, longer than the obtuse 

 capsule. Beck, Bot. p. 371, 



Effused Juncus. Vulgo— Common Rush. Soft Rush. 



Gallice — Jonc&meche. Germanic e — Die Binse. Hispanice — Junco. 



Root perennial, cespltose. T7a^!TXo^leBXTnp,~eruci, Simple, soft and pliable, 

 smooth, filled with a spongy pith, sheathed at base, and terminating at summit in a 

 long tapering pointed extremity. Panicle bursting from a fissure in the side of 

 the culm above the middle, sessile, much branched, often proliferous, bracteate at 

 base, and at the subdivisions ; bracts lance-oblong, acuminate, scarious. Sepal* 

 greenish with whitish scarious margins, very acute, or cuspidate, keeled, mostly 

 3.ribbed, with 2 ovate acuminate bracts at base. Stamens 3, opposite the outer se- 

 pals, shorter than the perianth ; anthers white. Style very short ; stigmas 3, fili- 

 form, spreading. Capsule trigonous-obovoid, obtuse. Seeds minute, oblong, acuta 

 at each end, yellowish. 

 ffab. Moist low grounds : common. Fl. June. Fr. August. 



Obs. This species, if neglected, is apt to prevail to a troublesome extent in our 

 wet meadows, and low grounds,— forming numerous bunches, or Tussocks. The 

 whole genus is altogether worthless, to the agriculturist. 



+ \ Culms leafy. * Leaves subterete, nodose-articulate. Panicle 



terminal. 



2. J. acumixatus, Mx. Culm leafy, terete ; leaves terete, fistular, 

 with knot-like joints; panicle compound, subcorymbose ; flowers in 

 capitate clusters ; heads 3 to 6 or 9-flowcred, pedunculate, or sessile ; 

 perianth rather shorter than the triquetrous acute capsule ; sepals lin- 

 ear-lanceolate, cuspidate. Beck, Bot. p. 372. 



J. sylvaticus. mild? Sp. 2. p. 211. Muhl Catal. p. 36. Ejusd. 

 Gram. p. 206. Also? Pers. Syn. I. p. 384. Pursh, Am. 1. p. 237. 

 JSTutt. Gen. 1. p. 227, Florid. Cestr. p. 43. 

 Acuminate Juxcrs. 



Root perennial, fibrous, ccspitosc. Culm 1 to 2 feet high, fistular, jointed (nee 

 articulato,Mw/?ZO> smooth, pliable. Leaves 2 to 6 or 8 inches long, terete, tapering 

 to a point, smooth, fistular, indistinctly nodosc-articulate (or the fistular cavity 

 iaurrupted by numerous diaphragmatic partitions), si ishtly contracted at th«>se 



