m 



TYPHACEiE. 



with a slender style, becoming in fruit a seed-like nut. Embryo 

 straight, embedded in copious endosperm. 



Flowers in dense cylindrical spikes 1. Typha. 



Flowers in globular heads, the lower with foliaceous bracts . . 2. Spakganium. 



1. TYPHA L. Cat-tail. 



Stems tall, simple, ending above in a long spike, the pistillate por- 

 tion below merely contiguous to or quite separated from the staminate 

 portion above. Stamens intermixed with hairs, their filaments con- 

 nate. Ovaries minute, surrounded by numerous hairs. Nuts very 

 small, usually splitting on one side, enveloped in a copious down. 

 (Ancient Greek name of the Cat-tail.) 



1. T. latifolia L. Cat-tail. Stout, 3£ to 6 ft. high; leaves very 

 long, linear, sheathing at the base; flowers in a spike 7 to 13 in. long, 

 the pistillate portion below contiguous to the staminate portion above; 

 pistillate portion dark brown, at length 1 in. thick; staminate portion 

 yellow, rather thicker when in flower, but soon deciduous leaving a 

 bare spike. 



Common in marshes and marshy places by creeks in the Coast 

 Ranges and Lower Sacramento and Lower San Joaquin. 



2. SPARGANIUM L. Bur-reed. 

 Stems simple or somewhat branched. Flowers in globose heads 

 scattered along the upper portion of the stem or its branches; lower 

 heads pistillate, with leaf-like bracts; upper heads staminate. Sta- 

 mens with minute scales interposed, their filaments slender and elon- 

 gated. Ovaries surrounded by 3 to 6 linear-subulate scales forming a 

 sort of perianth. (Sparganion the Greek name, diminutive of 

 sparganon, a swaddling-band, on account of the narrow ribbon-like 

 leaves.) 



Pistillate heads 2 on a branch, always sessile; nuts 2 lines wide or less 



1. S. Greenei. 



Pistillate heads 2 to 4 on a branch, peduncled or less commonly sessile; nuts 

 mostly 3 lines wide 2. S. eurycarpum. 



1. S. Greenei Morong. Greene's Bur-reed. Stems 3 to 5 ft. 

 high; leaves triangular, channeled, partly clasping at base and flat- 

 tened towards the apex, ^ in. wide; inflorescence branching, 13 to 1(> 

 in. long; pistillate heads 2 on a branch, sessile, in fruit 1 in. broad; 

 staminate heads 10 to 17 on a branch; nuts broadly cuneate, rounded 

 at summit and with a short beak, obviously but not sharply angular, 



4 lines long, 2 (or rather less than 2) lines wide. 



Olema, Marin Co.; San Francisco Peninsula. Fruiting in Oct. 



2. S. eurycarpum Engelm. Broad-fruited Bur-reed. Erect, 

 rather slender, 3 to 8 ft. high, with branching inflorescence; leaves 

 flat and thin, slightly keeled beneath; pistillate heads 2 to 4 on the 

 stem or branch, sessile or more commonly peduncled; staminate heads 



5 to 13; heads in fruit £ to 1^ in. in diameter; nuts obovate, many- 

 angled, with a broad rounded or hemispherical summit, tipped with 

 the short style, :! (or nearly 3) lines broad, 4 lines long, including the 

 style — (S. Californicum Greene.) 



