ILLUSTRATIONg. 121 



shadowy retreat. On such a picture I have gazed in the 

 silence of a summer's evening, when, as these silvery flowers 

 are long conspicuous in the twilight, the splendour of the 

 broad rising moon has increased and harmonized the illusion 

 of the scene." 



Another of the same series, is the Reed-mace or Cat^s-tail, 

 often called Bulrush,"^ a type of the Typhaceous family, in which 

 the flowers, which are collected into dense spikes, have no pe- 

 rianth, but are monoecious, that is, separate, though growing on 

 the same individuals. This plant is an aquatic perennial herb, 

 with a thickish creeping rootstock, and erect reed-like stems, 

 four to six feet high, having very long* erect linear leaves, 

 sheathing at the base, but flat and of a glaucous-green up- 

 wards. The flower-spike is terminal on the stem, and is often 

 a foot long or more. When in flower, the upper portion, 

 which is continuous with the lower, not separated by a short 

 interval as appears in the figure, and consists of male 

 flowers, is rather the thickest, and is yellow from the nume- 

 rous, closely packed, linear anthers ; the minute ovaries of the 

 lower part, which is of a deep brown, a colour given to it by 

 the protruded stigmas, are also closely packed, and enveloped 

 in tufts of soft hairs. When in fruit, the upper part becomes 

 bare, or appears smaller from the shrinking of the dead sta- 

 mens, and the lower part much thicker by the enlargement 

 of the nuts, which are still enveloped in the thick, dark- 

 coloured felt, formed by the hairs and stigmas, and at length 

 become stalked. The fruit is a small seed-like nut, which 

 continues small, aud enveloped in the downy hairs. The 

 plants are very stately objects in damp situations — these 

 Typhas " marshalled in battalions, like grenadiers with hairy 

 caps of the olden day," There is bat little difference be- 



* Typha laiifoUa—'PMe 21 B. 



