358 



WEEDS AXD USEFUL PLAXT5. 



and others), are perfectly hardy, and so beantiM that they should havs 

 a place in the smallest flower garden. 



Order LXXA'ILL. JUXCA'CE^. (Rush Family.) 



Herbs witli jointed sterns^ grass-like or terete leaves and regular mostly perfect jiovoers. 

 Perianth of 6 similar, dry and glumaceons, persistent sepalg. Stam-em 6 (rarely o) ; an- 

 f/iers intr or se. Oi^ar?/ free, forming in fruit a 1 - 3-celled S-ralred many-seeded capsule. 

 Style single. Seeds erect ; embryo enclosed at the base of bard aUmmen. 

 An Order ;^sses5ing but little beauty or value. 



1. JUN'CUS, i. KusH. 



[Latin, Jungere, to join ; being used +o tie or bind objects together.] 



Sepals 6, glnmaceons. Stamens mostly 6. inserted on the base of the 

 sepals, — sometimes those on the 3 inner sepals abortive. StrgmoH 3, 

 subsessile, filiform, villons. Capsule 3-celled, or somewhat 1-celled by 

 the incompleteness of the dissepiments, S-Talved, — the valves bearing 

 the dissepiments in the middle. Seeds nmnerons. Chiefly perennials with 

 mostly simple and scape-like pithy stems and cymose, paniculate or clus- 

 tered small greenish or hrowmsh flowers. 



1. J, effu'sus, L. Stem naked, often sterile, furnished with short leaf- 

 less sheaths at base, filled with spongy pith : panicle produced from the 

 side of the scape above the middle, diffusely n uch branched. 

 Effused Juxcus. Conunon Rush. Soft Rush. 



Hoot perennial, forming tussocks. Culms 2-3 feet high , simple , soft and pliable , sheathed 

 at base, and terminating at summit in a long tapering point. Injlorescence cymose-panic- 

 ulate, bursting from a lissure in the side of the culm near the summit, often proliferous, 

 bracteate : bracts oblong-lanceolate, scarious. SUimens 3, shorter than tbe sepals, oppo- 

 site the 3 outer ones : anHhers white. Capsule trigonous-obovoid, obtuse. ^Seeds minute, 

 oblong, acute at each end, yellowish. 



Moist meadows and low grounds : throughout the United States. Fl. June. Fr. July- 

 August. 



Ohs. The genus is a numerous one, — comprising about 100 known 

 species — of which some 18 or 20 are natives of the U. States. They 

 are aU homely plants, and entirely worthless to the farmer ; but the one 

 here given is the most troublesome. — continually forming numerous un- 

 sightly bunches or tussocks, in wet low grounds — and requiring some 

 attention to keep it in proper subjection. Mr. Elliott says that in 

 S. Carolina, this Rush " occupies and almost covers rice-fields as soon 

 as they are thrown out of cultivation." 



The ■• Black Grass " so common in salt marshes along the coast is 

 J, bnlbosus, L., and the little species so common along footpaths, seem- 

 ing to flourish best where it is most trodden on, is J, bufonius, L. 



Order LXXES. CYPERA'CE^. (Sedge Familt.) 



Rash-like or grass-like tierhs. with fibrous roots and solid slenis (culms), and closed 

 sheaths. Flovjers usually one in the axil of each of the glume-like bracts which form an 

 imbricated cluster or spikelet. Periajith none, or consisting of scales or bristles. SiamciU 



