880 



THE RUSH FAMILY. 



Plant 2 or 3 feet high, with numerous flowers in a com- 

 pound panicle 2. Great W. 



Alpine plant, not 6 inches high, with 3 or 4 small clusters 



of flowers 3. Curved W. 



Flowers in compact ovoid heads. 



Flower-heads 3 or 4, the outer ones pedicellate .... 4. Field W. 

 -Flower-heads nearly sessile, forming a dense terminal spike 5. Spiked W, 



1. Hairy Woodrush. Luzula pilosa, "Willd. (Fig. 1061.) 



(Juncus, Eng. Bot. t. 736, and J. Forsteri, t. 1293. L. Fosteri, Brit. 

 PL L. Borreri, Bab. Man.) 



Stock branched and tufted, with creep- 

 ing offsets. Stems slender and erect, 

 6 inches to a foot high. Leaves chiefly 

 radical or near the base of the stem, 

 linear and grass-like, 2 or 3 inches long, 

 more or less fringed with long, white 

 hairs. Flowers all distinct, or very 

 rarely two together ; the central one 

 nearly sessile, the others on slender pe- 

 duncles, either simple and 1-flowered or 

 more or less branched, forming an irre- 

 gular terminal panicle. Each flower has 

 2 or 3 s carious bracts or glumes at its 

 base. Perianth-segments very pointed, 

 of a shining brown. Capsule longer or 

 scarcely shorter than the perianth. Seeds 

 with a soft, loose, oblique or curved ap- 

 pendage at the top. 



In woods and on banks, common in 

 Fig. 1061. Europe and Russian Asia, from the Me- 



diterranean to the Arctic regions, and in North America. Extends all 

 over Britain. Fl. spring. It is usually divided into two species, L. 

 pilosa, with the appendage of the seed decidedly curved, and L. Fors- 

 teri, with that appendage straight or nearly so, but the character is 

 very variable, and does not correspond with the differences in habit 

 which it is sometimes supposed to do. 



2. Great Woodrush. Luzula sylvatica, Bichen. (Fig. 1062.) 



(Juncus, Eng. Bot. t. 737.) 



Easily known among British species by its large size ; the stems 



