536 



JUNCACE^E. (RUSH FAMILY.) 



Var. Amerie&num. (N. Americanum, Ker.) Flowers rather smaller 

 (scarcely 3" long) and leaves narrower than the European plant, which is lim- 

 ited to the Atlantic side of that continent, as is ours here: viz. in sandy bogs, 

 on this side, where it is very local, in the pine barrens of New Jersey only. 

 June, July. 



Order 122. JUJVCACEJE. (Rush Family.) 



Grass-like or sedge-like herbs, with small flowers, a regular and liypogynous 

 ■persistent perianth of 6 similar glumaceous sepals, 6 or rarely 3 stamens with 

 2-celled anthers, a single short style, 3 filiform hairy stigmas, and an ovary 

 either 3-celled or l-celled with 3 parietal placenta, forming a loculicidal 

 S-valved pod. Seeds anatropous, with a minute embryo enclosed at the 

 base of the fleshy albumen. — Rushes, with the flowe. s liliaceous in struc- 

 ture, but sedge-like in aspect and texture, mainly represented by only 

 two genera. 



1. LUZULA, DC. Wood-Rdsh. 



Pod l-celled, 3-seeded, one seed to each parietal placenta. — Perennials, often 

 nairy, usually in dry ground, with flat and soft usually hairy leaves, and spiked- 

 crowded or umbelled flowers. (Name said to be altered from the Italian luciola, 

 a glow-worm. ) 



* Flowers loosely long-peduncled, umbelled or corymbed. 



1. L. pilbsa, Willd. Leaves lance-linear, hairy ; umbel mostly simple; 

 sepals pointed, shorter than the obtuse pod ; seeds with a curved appendage. — 

 Woods and banks : common northward. May. — Plant 6' - 9' high. (Eu.) 



2. L. parvifldra, Desv., var. melanocarpa. Nearly smooth (l°-3° 

 high) ; leaves broadly linear; corymb decompound, loose; pedicels drooping ; sepals 

 pointed, straw-color, about the length of the minutely pointed and brown pod. 

 (L. melanocarpa, Desv.) — Mountains, Maine to Northern New York, and north- 

 ward. July. (Eu.) 



* * Flowers crowded in spikps or close clusters. [Plants 6'- 12' high.) 



3. L. camp^Stris, DC. Leaves fiat, linear ; spikes 4-12, somewhat umbelled, 

 ovoid, straw-color, some of them long-peduncled, others nearly sessile ; sepals 

 bristle-pointed, longerj;han the obtuse pods ; seeds with a conical appendage at 

 she base. — Dry fields and woods ; common. May. (Eu.) 



■*■. L. arcuata, Meyer. Leaves channelled, linear; spikes 3-5, on unequal 

 often recurved peduncles, ovoid, chestnut-brown ; bracts ciliate-fringed ; sepals 

 taper-pointed, longer than the obtuse pod; seeds not appendaged. — Alpine 

 summits of the White Mountains, New Hampshire, and high northward. (Eu.) 



5. L. spicata, Desvaux. Leaves channelled, narrowly linear ; flowers in 

 sessile clusters, forming a nodding interrupted spiked panicle, brown ; sepals bristle- 

 pointed, scarcely as long as the abruptly short-pointed pod; seeds merely with 

 a roundish projection at the base. (Our plant is L. racemosa, Desv.? according 

 to Godet.) With the last, and more common. (Eu.) 



