73 



Studies in tiie Typhacese. 



By Thomas Morong. 



II. — Sparganium. 



Plate LXXIX. 



r 



Taking the three orders, Aroidese, Typhaceae and Pandanea^, 

 as the descendants of a common ancestor, to which, among sur- 

 viving species, A^ncm bears the greatest hkeness, Sparganium 

 and Panda?zus appear to have diverged the most widely of all 

 the groups. Indeed, as Sir J. D. Hooker observes, the two 

 might, were the inflorescence alone considered, be regarded as 

 belonging to the same genus. In aspect and habit, however, they 

 differ greatly, and Sparganium still retains the monoecious cliar- 

 acter oi Arum. 



The floral leaves or bracts of Sparganiumy referred to in a 

 previous paper as the representatives of the former spathes, are 

 variously situated as regards the heads. Some of them are im- 



mediately underneath, and others remote from the heads, while 

 m other cases the heads stand upon peduncles. The uppermost, 

 which subtend the staminate heads, are small, thin and caducous, 

 F like the spathillas in Typha, or, at the extremities of the inflores- 



cence, obsolete. 



The perianth is composed o{ scales which have a Hnear limb 

 somewhat broader at the base and spreading at the summit into 

 a flat, rounded or spatulate, dentate apex. The male flowers are 

 apparently arranged in clusters that consist of five stamens on 

 thread-like filaments with about three scales intermixed, the scales 

 thus occupyinjj a place similar to that of the male bracts in Typha. 



Corrections. — In the paper on Typha in the January number of the Bulletin, 

 1888, on p. 6, under the figures of T. angustifoiia. No. 6 is erroneously printed 

 ''style;'' it should be ''stigma:' 



On p. 5, in the table of classification, under B II., is quite a serious error. The 

 heading should read '^ Stigmas linear, female flowers wtih bracts," not, as printed, 



"zf/M^/// bracts." 



My attention has also been called by a friend to the statement on p. 3, third Ime 

 from the bottom, *' setse girding the base of the stipe " as being inconsistent with the 

 figures dehneated, which represent the setoe as running up the whole length of the 

 stipe. It would have been more accurate had I said that tlie seta- which are, for the 

 most part, attached to the lower portion of the stipe, frequently run nearly up to the 

 ovaries in clusters. The figures were drawn from examples of the latter kind, in which 

 the ovaries occur a considerable distance up the stipe : they are often low down- 



