ENGELMANN—NORTH"AM. SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 469 
species. Michaux, who no doubt had seen a great deal of it 
in the south-eastern States, had united all under his J. poly- 
cephalus , in which he was followed by Pursh as well as by 
Meyer; but the earlier name of Lamarck must take prece¬ 
dence, though it seems to refer only to a single form, a speci¬ 
men of which, brought by Frazer froiU South Carolina, is still 
preserved in his herbarium, now in the hands of Prof. J. Roe- 
per of Rostock. This proves to be var. macrostemon (the 
form with longer exterior sepals), as has already been stated 
by Meyer (Linn, 3, 370). The older authors appear to have 
confounded it with J. nodosus , which latter Michaux does 
not seem to have known or distinguished, and which, on the 
other hand, is taken by Hooker in Flor. Bor. Am. for J. poly - 
cephalus. 
All the forms of this species have compact, globose, mostly 
greenish heads, turning straw-color or light brown at maturi¬ 
ty, on rigid or stout stems, rising, at least in var. a and P, from 
thick white horizontal rhizomas; those of var. y I have never 
seen in herbarium specimens; sheaths of the leaves, especially 
in a and /?, loose and open; stamens 3, very rarely, in var. a , 
4 or 5 in number; seeds, though differing much in form and 
size (from 0.2 to over 0.3 line long, and from an elongate fusi¬ 
form to a thick ovate shape), with 5 or 6, very rarely 7, 
ribs on one side, and smooth or delicately marked arese; these 
marks consist of one or a few perpendicular lines, sometimes 
crossed by a couple of horizontal ones.—Our southern bot¬ 
anists will have to find out whether one or the other of these 
forms may not justly claim to be considered as a distinct 
species. 
Yar. a is readily recognized by its wiry stem 1-2 feet high, 
its strictly erect panicle of a few (5-9, rarely single) small 
heads, 3$-4 lines in diameter, and composed of 15-30-40 
flowers,* the stamens of which are as long as the sepals, the 
small anthers often protruding from between their tips; flowers | 
H-ll lines long; seeds 0.22-0.28 line long, their length being 
equal to 2-2$ diameters. The form with long protruding 
styles has in flower a very curious aspect; in fruit it is often 
of a deeper brown than any other variety, and its capsules are 
not regularly subulate, as we find them in all other forms of 
this species, but oblong and rostrate, almost bottle-shaped. 
Another peculiarity of it is, that its heads are often lobed, as 
already remarked by Dr. Chapman, i. e. composed of a num¬ 
ber (3-5-7) of smaller heads, the axillary productions of the 
lowest bracts of the primary head. Sometimes the panicles 
become larger, 6 inches or more in length, and composed of 
numerous heads; in some southern, especially Texan, speci- 
'* Muhlenberg describes his J. echinatus with 9-flowered heads, and La¬ 
marck his J. scirpoides with heads bearing 12-18 flowers. 
