DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



319 



Typha spp. Oat-tail Flag. 



Endogen. Typhacew. A reed or rush. 



Common names. — The bulrush (erroneous) ; cat tail, reed mace, elephant grass 

 (Eng.); Massette (Fr.); Itohrkolbe (Ger.); Sala minore (It.); Lana de Enea 

 (Venez.); Totora (Peru). 



A genus of tall aquatic plants with long, flat leaves found over a large part of the 

 world. T. latifolia and T. angustifolia are the North American species, common also 

 in Europe, while T. clephantina and other 

 species are found in Asia. In this country 

 its chief use is in cooperage, its leaves 

 being employed to fill open seams in the 

 heads and between the staves of barrels. 

 Its fruit stems, crowned with the brown- 

 ish, velvety mass of fiber which clothes the 

 female spadix, are also used for household 

 decorative purposes. The down is some- 

 times used for stuffing, and at' one time a 

 considerable quantity of it (the fiber) was 

 secured commercially in New Jersey. 



Structural Fiber. — There are so many 

 references to the uses of the plant as fiber 

 that a few general statements will suffice. 

 Avery soft and fine fiber has been prepared 

 from the leaves in this country, experi- 

 mentally, but it is of little value compared 

 with many other fibers which can be pre- 

 pared from native weeds. "The tough 

 leaves, dried and split, are extensively 

 used to make chair bottoms, also woven 

 into baskets and mats, and even twisted 

 into strings and ropes." (Dr. Havard.) 

 The plant is noted in Venezuela, where 

 the fibrous material borne on the spadix 

 is employed for stuffing pillows. A species 

 reported as T. doming ensis is noted as a 

 fiber plant in Peru, where it is called the 

 Totora. T. latifolia and T. angustifolia 

 abound in Europe, where both the fiber of 

 the leaves and the fibrous substance of the 

 spadix have been employed, the first as a 

 material for making hats, baskets, chair 

 bottoms, etc., and the latter for uphol- 

 stery. A sample of its fiber prepared in 

 Victoria was sent to the Amsterdam Ex- 

 hibition of 1876, at which time it was 

 stated that a French company had been 

 formed to utilize the fiber in commerce. 

 The uses of the plant in India are even 



more varied; used for making sieves in Kashmir; for thatching huts and house 

 boats in the Punjab; for soft mattings, ropes, and baskets in Kulu and Kiimaon; 

 for the same purposes in Sind, and also for building rude wicker boats, employed 

 for crossing the Indus during floods. Used for paper making with success. "The 

 fiber has been examined in Europe, and is said to be of fine texture, tolerably strong, 

 and capable, with the aid of machinery, of being converted into textile fabrics." 

 (George Watt.) Savorgnan states that the leaVes of T. latifolia, are employed in 



Fig. 100.— Cat-tail flag, Typha angustifolia. 



