co 
TYPHACEA. 
Var. 2, media. 
T. media, D.C. Fl. Fr. Vol. V. p. 302. 
Leaves } to $ inch broad. Male and female spikes separated by a 
short interval. 
In pools and ditches. Not uncommon, and generally distributed in 
England. Rare in Scotland, where I have seen it wild only in Wig- 
tonshire; but it is recorded from the counties of Renfrew, Forfar, 
and Moray, and said by Neill to have formerly occurred in Orkney, 
but to be now extinct through drainage. Frequent throughout Ire- 
land. Var. 6 in the bog near the windmill on Wimbledon Common, 
Surrey. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
Rootstock thick, creeping, stoloniferous, sending up tufts of di- 
stichous leaves sheathing at the base, 3 to 6 feet high, varying in 
breadth from } to 14 inch. Flowering spike rather shorter than the 
leaves, supported on a stout straight unbranched stem. Anthers 
yellow. Female spikes 5 to 9 inches long, at first about + inch in 
diameter and olive brown, in fruit about 1 inch across and blackish, 
by which time the male spike is reduced to a naked rachis. Fruit 
with fine light brown hairs on the stalk. 
Common Cat's Tail. 
French, Massette & larges feuilles. German, Breitblittriges Kolbenrohr. 
This plant is known by the name of bulrush, cat’s tail, or reed mace, and grows 
abundantly in pools or low streams, and is generally associated with the yellow iris 
and the common reed. It was known to the ancients. (Plin. 16, 36.) 
The leaves of this plant are used largely by coopers to place between the staves of 
easks and tubs, to render them water-tight. The pollen from the sterile flowers is 
exceedingly inflammable, and is employed by the makers of fireworks as a substitute 
for that of the club moss. The down of the amentwm has been used to stuff cushions 
and mattresses. All the species of cats’ tails are very ornamental on the margins of 
lakes and pieces of water, and they afford favourable shelter to wild fowl; but as they 
increase rapidly, they must be cautiously introduced when the pool is small. This is 
the plant chosen generally by the early painters to represent the reed which was 
placed in our Sayiour’s right hand during His mockery by the Roman soldiers. In 
England the leayes are sometimes woven into mats and baskets, and occasionally 
cottages are thatched with them. In Dr. Clarke’s travels we read that the stems of 
this species of grass are a favourite food with the Cossacks. Dr. Clarke calls it a cool 
and pleasant vegetable; but states that he was told by several Cossack officers, who 
had been in other countries, that it is only fit for food when it grows in the marshes 
of the Don. 
B 2 
