SEED-BEAEING PLANTS 491 



TYPES OF MONOCOTYLEDONS 



427. Cat-tail Family (Typhaceae).— The cat-tails are 

 one' of the most primitively organized family of Angio- 

 sperms. They grow in groups or associations in swamps 

 and wet places, and are conspicuous by their tall, upright 

 and grass-like leaves, and by the inflorescences or "cat- 

 tails" in late summer and fall (Fig. 374). The monoecious 



Fig. 375. — Staminate flower of the broad-leaved cat-tail {Typha lati- 

 folia). (Cf. Fig. 376.) 



flowers are borne on a fleshy axis or spadix, the pistillate 

 below, and the staminate above near the tip. The flowers 

 have neither calyx nor corolla (Figs. 375 and 376), and the 

 one-celled ovary contains but one ovule. The embryo is 

 surrounded by abundant endosperm, often called albu- 

 men. The copious brown down of the fruit is composed 

 of club-shaped hairs on the stipe, or stalk-like support of 

 the pistil. 



428. Water-plantain Family (Alismaceae;. — The type 

 genus^ of the water-plantain family is the water-plantain 



'■ The type genus of a family is the genus from which the family name 

 often is derived, and usually (though not always) embodies in a striking 

 way the characters which distinguish the family. 



