776 



THE BULRUSH FAMILY. 



Abundant in England, Ireland, and southern Scotland, but not in the 

 Highland districts. Fl. summer. 



2. Lesser Bulrush. Typha angustifolia, Linn. (Fig. 932.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1456.) 



Differs from the great B. 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 slen- 

 der, but all these characters are very 

 variable. 



Accompanies the great JB. over the 

 greater part of its area, but is not 

 quite so common, and scarcely ex- 

 tends so far north. In Britain, pro- 

 bably confined to England and Ire- 

 land. FL summer. 



Fig. 932. 



II. SFARGANIUM. SPARGANIUM. 



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

 along the summit of the stem, with leaf-like bracts under the lower 

 ones. Upper heads all males, consisting of stamens with minute scales 

 irregularly interposed ; 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. 



Fruiting heads rather large, with long linear styles 



or points to the nuts 2. Simple S., var. 



Fruiting heads small, with very short styles or 



points to the nuts 3. Small S. 



