TYPHACE.E. (CAT-TAIL FAMILY.) 429 



6. ACORUS, L. Sweet Flag. Calamus. 



Spadix lateral, sessile, emerging from the side of a scape which resembles tire 

 leaves, densely covered with perfect flowers. Sepals 6, concave. Stamens 6 : 

 filaments linear : anthers kidney-shaped, 1-cclled, opening across. Ovary 2-3- 

 celled, with several pendulous orthofropous ovules in each cell : stigma minute. 

 Fruit at length dry, gelatinous inside, 1 -few-seeded. Enibryo in the axis of 

 albumen. — Pungent aromatic plants, especially the thick creeping rootstocks 

 (calamus of the shops), which send up 2-edged sword-like leaves, and scapes 

 similar to them, bearing the spadix on one edge ; the upper and more foliaceous 

 prolongation sometimes considered as an open spathe. (The ancient name, 

 from a privative, and Koprj, the pupil of the eye, having been used as a remedy 

 for sore eyes.) 



1. A. Calamus, L. Scape leaf-like and prolonged far beyond the 

 cylindrical (yellowish-green) spadix. — Margin of rivulets, swamps, &c. June 

 - It appears to be truly indigenous northward. (Eu.) 



Order 113. TYPHACEiE. (Cat-tail Family.) 



Marsh herbs, loith nerved and linear sessile leaves, and monoecious flowers 

 oil a spadix or in heads, destitute of proper floral envelopes. Ovary taper- 

 ing into a slender style and usually an elongated 1-sided stigma. Fruit nut- 

 like when ripe, 1 -seeded. Seed suspended, anatropous : embryo straight 

 in copious albumen. — Comprises only the two following genera. 



1. TYPHA, Tourn. Cat-tail Flag. 



Flowers in a long and very dense cylindrical spike terminating the stem ; the 

 upper part consisting of stamens only, intermixed with simple hairs, and insert- 

 ed directly on the axis ; the lower or fertile part consisting of ovaries, surrounded 

 by club-shaped bristles, which form the copious down of the fruit. Nutlets 

 minute, very long-stalked. — Spathes merely deciduous bracts, or none. Root- 

 stocks creeping. Leaves long, sheathing the base of the simple jointless stems, 

 erect, thickish. (Name from ricpos, a fen, alluding to the place of growth.) 



1. T. latifolia, L. (Common Cat-tail or Reed-mace.) Leaves near- 

 ly flat : staminate and pistillate parts of the spike approximate or continuous. — 

 Borders of ponds, &c. July. (Eu.) 



2. T. angusfifolia, L. (Narrow-leaved or Small Cat-tail.) 

 Lieares channelled towards the base, narrowly linear ; staminate and pistillate parts 

 of the spike usually separated by an interval. — In similar places with the last; 

 a rarer and smaller plant; probably a mere variety of it. (Eu.) 



2. SPARGAIVItTM, Tourn. Bur-reed. 



Flowers collected in separate dense spherical heads, scattered along the sum- 

 mit of the stem, subtended by leaf-like bracts, the upper ones sterile, consisting 

 merely of stamens, with minute scales irregularly interposed ; the lower or for- 



