JUNCACEjE. 



871 



Flowers several, distinct, in a loose panicle. 



Outer bract short ....'.... 7. Uound-fruitedR. 

 Flowers very few on each stem, distinct. Outer 



bracts very long and slender 13. Highland R. 



Flowers 6 or 8 together in terminal heads . . 14. Chestnut R. 



These species are well distributed into two sections. In the one, 

 comprising the first ten of the following species, the seeds are ovate or 

 oblong, scarcely pointed. In the second section, to which belong the 

 last five species (11 to 15), the testa of the seed is extended at each end 

 into a little tail-like appendage. 



1. Common Rush. Juncus communis, Mey. (Fig. 1016.) 

 (J. conglomerate, Eng. Bot. t. 835, and J. effusus, t. 836.) 



The shortly creeping matted rootstock 

 bears dense tufts of cylindrical leafless 

 stems, 2 to 3 feet high or even more, 

 erect, but soft and pliable, sheathed at 

 the base by a few brown scales. Some 

 of these stems remain barren so as to 

 resemble leaves ; others bear, on one 

 side, at 4 to 6 or 8 inches below the top, 

 a densely clustered panicle of small 

 green or brown flowers ; the very nu- 

 merous peduncles vary from a line or 

 two to above an inch in length, the cen- 

 tral smaller ones have but 2 or 3 flowers, 

 the others a considerable number in 

 irregular cymes. Perianth - segments 

 about a line long, very pointed. Cap- 

 sule about as long, very obtuse or even 

 notched. Stamens usually 3 only. 



In wet situations, almost all over the 

 northern hemisphere and in many parts 

 of the southern one. In Britain, one of the commonest species. Fl. 

 summer. Two extreme forms are usually distinguished as species, the 

 dense-floivered R. {J. conglomeratus), with the flowers densely packed 

 in close clusters of about an inch diameter, usually brown ; and the 

 loose-flowered R. (J. effusws), with the panicles much looser, often 2 to 

 3 inches diameter, and paler- coloured ; but every gradation may be 

 observed between them in this respect, as well as in other more mi- 

 nute characters which have been assigned to them respectively. 



Fig. 1046. 



