814 TYI*HACE^. (cat-tail FAMltY.) 



long, .01 thick, in the staminate tree siibternate ; flowers pale-yellow; 

 fruft obovate, sessile, .07 long, .05 broad, truncate, resembling a mi- 

 nute cocoanut, pruinose — March — 'Aqabah ; Around Tor in Arabia 

 Petrcea. The fibrous husk of the fruit is eaten by the people. It 

 resembles gingerbread in taste. 



OnDER CXV. TYPHACEiE, Juss. (Cat-Tail Family). 

 Marsh or aquatic herls^ with linear, sessile leaves, aiid 

 moimcious floioers'on a spadix, or in glohular heads, destitute 

 of proper floral envelopes. The iii^per spikes or heads stami- 

 11 ate, the lower pistillate. Perigonium consisting of three or 

 more scales or bristles. Stamens 1-3, with thread-like fila- 

 ments, free or connate at base. Ovary free, with a single, 

 pendulous ovule, one style, and a simple, unilateral stigma. 

 iS'utlet with a membranous or somewhat drupaceous pericarp. 

 Seed pendulous. Embryo linear, in the axis of the farina- 

 ceous albumen, radicle superior. 



1. TYPHA, L. Cat-Tail Flag. 



Spikes 2-3 on each axis, cylindrical, the upper staminate, the lower 

 1-3 pistillate. Staminate spiTies : floral leaves 3-4, soon deciduous; 

 flowers naked, 1-3-androus, subtended by numerous simple or branch- 

 ing hairs arising from the axis, the filaments filiform, simple or branch- 

 ing, the anthers 4-celled, ending in a dilated connective. Pistillate 

 spikes : flowers naked, or subtended by a bracteole with a spathulate 

 tip; ovary oblong, short-stipitate, beset at base with numerous bristles. 

 Style filifonn. Stigma linear or spathulate-ovate. Fruit a nutlet, with 

 a long, hairy stalk, indehiscent, or dehiscent by a longitudinal slit — 

 Tall, aquatic herbs, with a creeping, stoloniferous root-stock, cylindri- 

 cal, leafy stems, and linear, leathery leaves. 



* Stigmas lanceolate- s^MthuJate. 



1 . T. latifolia, L. If Broad-leaved Cat-Tail. Reed-Mace. Leaves 

 broad-linear, Jlat, longer than flowering stalk. Spikes often close 

 together, the pistillate brown, turning blackish ; stigmas much longer 

 than perigonial bristles — Summer — Stagnant or running water, 



* * Stigmas linear. 



2. T. aiigii§tifolia, L. 11 Narrow-leaved Cat-Tail. Leaves 

 linear, concave, longer than flowering stem. Spikes often remote, the 

 pistillate brown; bracteoles filiform at base, ovate-spathulate toAvnrd 

 tip, as long as 2:)erigonial Iristles ; stigmas much longer than perigonial 

 bristles — Summer — Stagnant and running waters. 



3. T. aiig^iistata, Bory et Chaub. 2f Leaves narrowly linear, 

 convex at outer, flat at inner face, longer than flowers. Spikes often 

 remote, the pistillate pale brown, with grej'ish dots ; bracteoles filiform 

 at base, ovate-spathulate toward tip, about as long as linear stigmas, 

 much longer than perigonial Iristles — Summer — Stagnant and rilnning 

 waters. 



2. SPARCJAJVIUM, L. Bur-Beed. 



Flowers arranged in globular heads along the primary and second- 



