ENGELMANN—NORTH AM. SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 473 
reference to Gronov. Virg. 15 [leg. 152] is a mistake, in copy¬ 
ing from Gronovius of Gramm junceum elatius pericarpiis ova- 
tis Americanum ,, Pluk. aim. That this is not the type of J. 
nodosus is clear, because it does not, like all other Gronovian 
plants, appear in the first edition of Spec. Plant. Linnaeus’ 
annotations prove that he was considering some plant in his 
herbarium, and not a mere quotation.” The figure of Rostko- 
vius is a very good representation of the ordinary appearance 
of this variety.—It is by far the slenderest form, usually from 
8-12 or 15 inches high, with 2-5 or 8 brown heads in a rather 
compact and simple or slightly compound: panicle; in the 
Rocky Mountains a dwarf form occurs, with a filiform stem 
3-5 inches high, bearing a single few-flowered head (X poly - 
cephalus, 7, Hook. 1. c.); a similar variety was collected on 
the mountains of Vermont by H. Mann , Hb. n. 72; Judge 
Clinton and Dr. Bigelow , Hb. n. 73, send from the shores of 
the northern lakes a taller form, 2-3 feet high, with a more 
compound lighter colored panicle; and this makes a transition 
to one which Dr. Vasey has sent from the northern border of 
Illinois, a stout, large (nearly 2 feet high) green-headed plant, 
with a decompound panicle of at least 30 greenish heads, each 
composed of 25-35 flowers. This latter is an interesting form, 
as it connects all three varieties.—The heads of the genuine 
J. nodosus are 3 J-4 lines in diameter, and show a deeper brown 
color than any of the other varieties; the flowers are l£~2 
lines long, and the capsule, which is usually rostrate from an 
oblong body and not regularly subulate, in most instances 
considerably exceeds the sepals. The seeds are, as in all 
other forms of this species, ovate or obovate, abruptly apicu- 
late, and prettily reticulated with very distinct cross-lineola- 
tion, 0.22-0.27 line long, their diameter being equal to about 
one-half their length, or, in some forms with slender seeds, 
much less. 
Var, /? is Usually a taller plant, 12-20 inches high, but quite 
slender; the compound or decompound rather lax panicle is 
2-4 inches long, and the echinate fruit-heads have a diameter 
of 5 or 6 lines. Flowers 2J lines long; obtuse anthers often 
twice as long as the filaments; seeds usually a little smaller 
than in the last, 0.22-0.24 line long. 
Var. 7 is a stouter plant, 1-2J feet high, with the largest 
heads of any Juncus known to me, in fruit 6-8 lines in diame¬ 
ter, in a rather compact panicle; seeds like those of the last. 
The Texan variety and Dr. Vasey’s specimens, mentioned 
above, unite this with the genuine J. nodosus , from which I 
cannot separate it, though looking so very distinct. 
44. J. Canadensis, J. Gay in La Harpe, Mon. 134; Kunth, 
1. c. 333; caulibus caespitosis teretibus laevibus; paniculae capi- 
tulis pauci-multifloris; sepalis lineari-lanceolatis plerumque 
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Missouri 
. . . . Botanical 
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