TYPHACE^E. (CAT-TAIL FAMILY.) 443 



2. L. polyrhiza, L. Stems roundish or obovate, flat and pale above, 

 convex and dark purple beneath, clustered ; roots numerous, clustered ; ovules 2. 

 Ponds, Florida, and northward. Less common than the preceding. Stems 

 2" -4" long. 



ORDER 137. TYPHACE7E. (CAT-TAIL FAMILY.) 



Simple-stemmed marsh herbs, with elongated strap-shaped nerved 

 leaves, and monoecious flowers, on a globular or cylindrical spadix, desti- 

 tute of floral envelopes, but enveloped in copious pappus-like hairs or 

 scales. Spathe bract-like or none. Anthers single or 2 - 4 together, on 

 long and slender filaments. Ovary 1-celled, with a single suspended 

 anatropous ovule. Style slender. Fruit nut-like. Embryo straight in 

 copious albumen. Sterile spadix placed above the fertile, continuous or 

 distant. 



1. TYPHA, Tourn. CAT-TAIL. 



Flowers densely crowded on a long cylindrical terminal spadix, enveloped in 

 copious pappus-like hairs ; the sterile ones sessile on the upper part of the spa- 

 dix, the fertile on slender stalks. Style filiform : stigma lateral. Embryo cylin- 

 drical, in the axis of fleshy albumen. Stems straight, from a thick rhizoma, 

 clothed below with the sheathing bases of the elongated linear leaves. Spathes 

 bract-like and deciduous, or none. 



1 T. latifolia, L. Stem terete, jointed below ; leaves nearly as long as 

 the stem, erect, flat, reticulated and somewhat glaucous ; sterile and fertile por- 

 tions of the spadix contiguous, cylindrical. Margins of ponds and rivers, 

 Florida, and northward. July and Aug. Stem 4 - 6 high, scape-like above. 

 Leaves r> bout 1' wide. Spadix about 1 long. T. angustifolia, L., if found 

 within our limits, may be known by narrower leaves which are channelled near 

 the base, and by the interval which separates the sterile and fertile portions of 

 the spadix. 



2. SPARGANITJM, L. BUR-REED. 



Flowers densely crowded in globular heads, surrounded by several scales like 

 a calyx ; the upper heads sterile, naked, the lower fertile and commonly bracted. 

 Ovary sessile, pointed by the short persistent style. Stigma lateral. Fruit nut- 

 like. Embryo cylindrical, in the axis of fleshy albumen. Marsh or aquatic 

 plants, with erect stems, and long strap-shaped sessile leaves, the lowest ones 

 sheathing. Heads of flowers scattered. 



1. 3. ramosum, Huds. ? Leaves flat, obtuse, the upper ones gradually 

 shorter, concave and clasping at the base, the lower sheathing and elongated ; 

 heads 5 - 9, disposed in axillary and terminal interrupted spikes ; the lowest one 

 larger and pistillate, the others wholly staminate ; scales wedge-shaped ; stigma 

 subulate, simple. (S. Americanum, Ell.) Lagoons and ditches, Florida, and 

 northward. July. Stem 2 - 3 high. Leaves as long as the stem, 8" - 12" 

 wide. Heads of fertile flowers 8" - 10" in diameter. 



