Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/333

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all the objects to which the pages of the Linnean Transactions have been devoted, none has contributed more to the progress of science than the monographs which have appeared of the different genera of animals and plants. With a view, therefore, of contributing a small share to the labours of the Society, I have ventured to communicate a few remarks for the purpose of elucidating the obscure and uninviting genus Juncus: for though an inaugural dissertation has been dedicated to the subject by Rostkov, intitled "Monographia Generis Junci, cum Tabulis binis æneis," Berolini, 1801, it is a work not to be found in any of our botanical libraries; and, though containing much useful information, does not supersede the necessity of a further illustration of the genus. Its arrangement of the species is indeed altogether unnatural and objectionable, as he has brought together into close connexion some of those which have the most distant relation in the whole genus. The French botanists have commemorated the author by naming after him a new genus, naturally related to the objects of his essay.

The old herbalists seem to have had no other character for the Junci than their grassy appearance, and their internal spongy structure. This comprehended an heterogeneous assemblage of Rh