ENGELMANN—NORTH AM. SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 465 
the inside of a valve with a parietal placenta on the lower 
half. Meyer, therefore, had seen the ripe fruit, and could not 
have failed to see some seeds, unless all had fallen out; but 
as they did not differ from the common form of Juncus seeds, 
he did not mention their shape, which he would certainly 
have done, and would have placed the plant in his second 
section, Marsippospermum , had they been at all appendicu- 
late, as they are in the plant with us heretofore taken for J. 
paradoxus. Besides this, the latter, which is enumerated 
here as J. Canadensis , var. longecaudatus f never has the 
inner sepals Shorter, but almost always longer, than the 
outer ones, and has rarely, if ever, as far as I am inform¬ 
ed, those leafy degenerations of the flower-heads so com¬ 
mon in var. legitimus. La Harpe, who describes “ J. para - 
doxus” from Pennsylvanian specimens, speaks of the sepals 
as being nearly equal to the capsule, and of the seeds as ovoid. 
Why both, Meyer as well as La Harpe, should have separated 
their J. palleseens or acuminatus from this J. paradoxus is 
not very clear; they have evidently seen very few or single 
specimens only, and seem to have laid too much stress on the 
slight difference in the length of the sepals. 
The extreme forms of this variable plant might readily be 
taken for distinct species were the intermediate ones want¬ 
ing. All the forms produce from a short rootstock few or 
many erect or somewhat ascending, rather weak (except in 
var. 6) terete or slightly compressed stems, rarely (except in 
var. y and 6) over two feet, and sometimes less than one foot 
high. The bracts are broad, membranaceous, and (the outer 
ones at least) awned; heads and flowers are of different sizes, 
but the sepals always regularly lance-subulate and very acute 
or almost awned* but not rigid, and, with rare exceptions, 
equal in length; only in some few specimens of var. legiti¬ 
mus I have seen the outer a little longer than the inner ones. 
Capsules as long as, or longer than, the sepals, pale green 
to straw-colored or light brownish, with parietal placentae on 
the lower half of the valves. Seeds obovate or oblanceolate, 
acute or apiculate at both ends, 0.20-0.25 line long, the length 
being equal to about diameters, of a yellowish or light 
brown color and apparently semi-transparent, neatly reticu- 
ted, and 6 or 7 ribs visible on one side. 
Var. a. legitimus is the most variable of all the forms of 
this species, but is always readily recognized by the larger 
flowers, 1.5-2.0 lines long, and the ovate-prismatic obtusish 
mucronate capsule of the length of the sepals. Stems scarcely 
ever over 2 feet high; panicle, as well as heads, extremely 
variable, the former apparently more compound and the lat¬ 
ter fewer-flowered north and eastward, while some Illinois 
(j ffi. Sail , Hb. n. 55) and Texas specimens (“Hog bed prai¬ 
ries” on the Guadaloupe, Wright , Guadaloupe to Matamoras, 
