JUNCACEJL. (RUSH FAMILY.) 537 



2. JUNCUS, L. Rush. Bog-Rush. 



Pod many-seeded, 3-celled, or 1 -celled by the placentas not reaching the axis. 

 Stamens when 3 opposite the 3 outer sepals. — Chiefly perennials, and in wet 

 soil or water, with pithy or hollow and simple (rarely branching) stems, and 

 panicled or clustered small (greenish or brownish) flowers, chiefly in summer. 

 Plant never hairy. (The classical name, from jungo, to join, alluding to the 

 use of the stems for bands.) 



Contributed for this edition by Dr. Engelmann, who has recently published 

 a monograph of the North American species in the Transactions of the St. 

 Louis Academy of Science. 



§ I. True Junci ; with naked and simple scapes from matted running root stocks, 

 many of them barren, furnished at base with sliort leafless or rarely leaf bearing 

 sheaths : leaves, if any, terete, knotless and similar to the scape : flowers single 

 or rarely clustered on the pedicels, in sessile panicles, produced apparently from 

 the side of the scaj>e, the exterior sheath or involucral leaf being similar to and 

 continuing the scape. Flowering in early summer. 

 * Flowers single on the pedicels or ultimate ramifications of the panicle. 

 •*- Sheaths at base of the stem leafless. 

 ** Stamens 3. 



1. J. effusus, L. (Common or Soft Rush.) Scape soft and pliant 

 (2° -4° high); inner sheaths awned; panicle diffusely much branched, many- 

 flowered; flowers numerous, small ( 1 5'' long), greenish ; sepals lanceolate, very 

 acute, as long as the triangular-obovate retuse and pointless greenish-brown 

 pod; anthers as long as filaments; style very short; seeds small (about 5" long) 

 with short pale points, delicately ribbed and cross-lined. — Var. conglomerates 

 (J. conglomerate, L.) has the scape more distinctly striate, the panicle closely 

 crowded, and the pod short-pointed. — Marshy grounds : very common ; the var. 

 in sphagnous swamps. (Eu.) 



++ ++ Stamens 6. 



2. J. filiformis, L. Scape very slender (l°-2°high), pliant; panicle 

 few-flowered, almost simple; flowers (1^" long) ; sepals lanceolate, the inner a 

 little shorter and less acute, longer than the broadly ovate obtuse but short- 

 pointed greenish pod ; anthers shorter than the filaments ; style very short ; seed 

 (less than $" long) short-pointed at both ends, indistinctly reticulated. — N. 

 .New England and New York to Michigan and northward. (Eu.) 



3. J. Sniithii, Engelm. Scape rather slender (2° -3° high) ; panicle few- 

 flowered, nearly simple; flowers brown (1£" long) ; outer sepals lanceolate and 

 acute, inner a little shorter, obtusish, shorter than the broadly ovate rather tri- 

 angular acute and pointed deep chestnut-brown pod ; anthers as long as fila- 

 ments ; style short, seeds large (£" or more long) obtuse, with short appendages 

 at both ends, many-ribbed and reticulated. — Sphagnous swamps, on Broad 

 Mountain, Pennsylvania, C. E. Smith. 



4. J. BaltiGUS, Dethard. Scape rigid (2° -3° high); panicle loose-, 

 flowers larger (2" long), chestnut-brown with green; sepals ovate-lanceolate, 

 the outer sharp-pointed, the inner obtusish, as long as the elliptical rather 

 triangular obtuse and pointed deep brown pod ; anthers much longer than the 



