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418 CLASS II, MONOCOTYLEDONS, ee 
perianth is entirely wanting, or reduced to a very few small scales; in 
Aroidee, in Zamus, and Paris, the leaves are somewhat netted-veined ; 
and in some Naiadee, and in Paris, and some Convallarias, they are 
opposite or whorled. 
LXXV. TYPHACEA, THE REEDMACEH FAMILY. 
Reed-like marsh or aquatic herbs, with long, linear leaves. 
Flowers moncecious, in dense spikes or globular clusters, with- 
out any perianth. Ovary tapering into a slender simple style. 
Fruit a small, seed-like nut, with a single pendulous seed. 
Embyro straight, in a copious albumen. 
A family limited to the two British genera. 
Flowers in long, dense, cylindrical ae ‘ : . . « 1. TypHAss 
Flowers i in distinct globular heads . ‘ “ olor. . 2. SPARGANIUM. 
I. TYPHA. REEDMACE, 
Flowers in a long, very dense, cylindrical and simple spike, terminating 
the stem, the upper part consisting of stamens only, intermixed with hairs, 
the lower part more dense, with minute ovaries, surrounded by numerous 
hairs. Nuts very small, enveloped in a copious down. 
A small genus, spread over the greater part of the globe. 
Male flowers close above the feniales, in an uninterrupted spike 1. Z. latifolia. 
Male and female parts of ye spike separated bye a ert inter . 
without flowers . . 2° TD. angustifolia, 
1. T. latifolia, Linn. (fig. 937). Great Reedmace, Cat’s-tail, Reed- 
mace.—Rootstock shortly creeping, with erect, reed- like tems, 3 to 6 feet 
high. Leaves very long, erect and linear, sheathing at the base, but flat 
in the greater part of their length. Flowers in a continuous spike, often 
more than a foot long, the upper male portion rather thicker when in 
flower, yellow with the very 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 i in the rusty down. 
On the margins of ponds, lakes, and watery ditches, nearly all over the 
north temperate zone. Abundant in Britain. Fl. summer. 
- 2, T. angustifolia, Linn. (fig.938). Lesser Reedmace.—Differs vitil 
T. latifolia chiefly in the interruption in the spike between 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 narrower and stiffer leaves, more 
concave on the upper side, and the spikes are more slender, but all these 
characters are very variable. 
Accompanies 7’. latifolia over the greater part of its. area, but is not 
so common, and scarcely extends so far north. In Britain, it occurs locally 
from Fife and Lanark southwards, and rarely in east Ireland. 1. 
summer. 
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