Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/767

Juncus.] ''Monog. Junc.'' 228. J. communis, ''E. Mey. Junc. 12; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vii. 128; ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. ''Fl. 290. J. luxurians, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. (1887) 269. J. polyanthemus, ''Buchen. in Engl. Bot. Jahr.'' xxi. (1895) 261.

5. J. maritimus, Lam. Encycl. iii. 264; var. australiensis, ''Buchen. Monog. Junc.'' 257.—Densely tufted, tall, stout, dark-coloured, 1–3 ft. high. Rhizome short, thick, horizontal. Stems crowded on the rhizome, rigid, wiry, terete, pungent, furnished at the base with several chestnut-brown sheathing scales, the upper 1 or 2 of which are produced into terete leaves similar to the stems but shorter than them. Inflorescence lateral; cymes large, lax, irregularly branched; branches strict, erect. Flowers about ⅛ in. long, dark chestnut-brown, usually aggregated into little clusters. Perianth-segments lanceolate, acute, the inner rather shorter. Stamens 6; anthers linear. Capsule ovoid-trigonous, acute, only slightly exceeding the perianth, dark chestnut-brown. Seeds obovoid, very shortly tailed.—J. maritimus, ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 145; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 292; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 263; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 289.