DESCRIPTIVE FLORA 



TYPHACEAE. Cat-Tail Family. 

 Typha latifolia L. Common Cat-tail Red Mace. 



Stately plants growing partly submerged in water or in 

 marshy places. Leaves 2 to 8" long, erect, flat, grasslike, % to 1" 

 wide. Inflorescence a stout, dark brown, cylindrical spike, 

 usually constricted in the middle and terminating the shining, 

 green, strong, rather slender stems rising one to two feet above 

 the water. Grows in bunches forming islets in marshes and soft- 

 bottomed ponds, and along margins of marshy-bottomed lakes 

 and water courses. Derives its common name from the imaginary 

 resemblance of the inflorescence to a cat's tail. The leaves are 

 eaten by cattle. 



ALISMACEAE. Water-Plantain Family. 



Ecliinodorus cordifoKus (L.) Griseb. Bur-head. Mud Babies. 



Plants growing in mud along margins of creeks and lakes, 

 and often filling ditches and mud holes. Leaves only basal. 

 Blades erect, 1 — 4" long, ovate, with more than one vein at base. 

 Flowers white, in circles about the stem of the simple or branched 

 flower stalk. Petals three, white, wilting soon after being 

 gathered. Stamens ten to twelve. Fruit a round head of tiny 

 flattened achenes. Roots fibrous. Blossoms from April to late 

 fall. 



Sagittaxria lancifolia L. Arrow-head. 



Plants with white flowers in circles of three, large flat, 

 erect leaf-blades terminating long triangular stems, and rooted 

 in mud in middle of brooks and ditches, and in shallow water 

 on margins of creeks and lakes. Flowers about % " across, white 

 with yellow or green centers, in whorls of 3 at short intervals 

 along the upper part of the smooth, porous, somewhat stout 

 flower stems. Petals 3, withering quickly. Stamens many, with 

 stout, hairy filaments, and forming a rounded mass of yellow in 



