XTPHACE^. 485 



A small genus, spread over the greater part of the globe. 



Male flowers close above the females, in an uninterrupted spike .... 1. Cheat B. 

 Male and female parts of the spike separated by a short interval without 



flowers 2. Lesser B, 



1. Great Bulrash. Typha latifolia, Linu. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1455. Bulrush. Cafs-tail. Heedinace.) 



Eootstock shortly creeping, with erect, reed-hke stems, 3 to 6 feet high. 

 Leaves very long, erect and linear, sheathing at the base, but flat in the 

 greater part of theu" length. Flowers in a continuous spike, often more than 

 a foot long, the upper male portion rather thicker when in ilowei-, yellow with 

 the veiy numerous, closely packed, linear anthers ; the minute ovaries of 

 the lower part as closely packed, and enveloped in tufts of soft, brownish 

 hairs. When in fruit, the upper part of the spike is a bare stalk, whilst 

 the lower part has thickened by the enlargement of the nuts, still enveloped 

 in the rusty down. 



On the margins of ponds, lakes, and watery ditches, nearly aU over the 

 globe, except the extreme north and south. Abundant in England, Ire- 

 land, and southern Scotland, but not in the Highland districts. Fl. summer. 



■2. Iiesser Bulrush. Typha angustifolia, Linn, 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1456.) 



Differs from the great B. chiefly in the interruption in the spike be- 

 tween the male and the female flowers, for a space varying from a few lines 

 to an inch in length. It is also usually smaller, with nan-ower and stiffer 

 leaves, more concave on the upper side, and the spikes are more slender, 

 but all these characters are very variable. 



Accompanies the great B. over the greater part of its area, but is not 

 quite so common, and scarcely extends so far north. In Britain, probably 

 confined to England and Ireland. Fl. summer. 



II. SPARGANIUM. SPAEGANIUM. 



Flowers in globular heads, placed at a distance from each other along 

 the summit of the stem, with leaf-Hke bracts under the lower ones. Upper 

 heads all males, consisting of stamens with minute scales irregularly inter- 

 posed ; the lower heads larger, all females, consisting of sessile ovaries, each 

 one surrounded by 3 to 6 scales, forming an irregular perianth. 



A small genus, dispersed over the northern hemisphere without the 

 tropics. 



Inflorescence branched, each branch bearing more than one head . . 1. Branched S. 

 Inflorescence simple. 



Stem and leaves erect 2. Simple S. 



Stem weak. Leaves floating 3. Moating S. 



1. Branched Sparganium. Sparganium ranxosum, Euds. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 744. Bur-reed.) 

 Stems erect, simple or branched, 2 feet high or more, sheathed below by 

 the long, hnear leaves, which usually far surpass the inflorescences. These 

 form a kind of panicle at the summit of the stem, with 3 or 4 to 6 or 8 

 simple branches, each bearing 6 to 12 or even more male heads, about the 

 size of a pea tiU the stamens expand, when they are about 4 lines in dia- 



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