IV. FANDaNE/E. 
[ ' Frey cinetia . 
276 
Northern Island : as far south as the east coast. Banks and Solander. The bracts 
and young spikes make a very sweet preserve ; the leaves are used for basket-making. 
(AROlDErE.) 
Calathum esculentum, Vent. ( Colocasia esculenta, Schott ; Arum esculentum, Linn.), 
is the Tarro or Tullo of the natives, introduced by them into the islands, and still abundantly 
cultivated (Forst. PI. Esc. p. 58) ; it is a staple article of food in many parts of the Old 
World. 
Order V. TYPHACEiE. 
Erect, leafy, marsh or water-plants. Leaves linear, sessile, sheathing at 
the base. Elowers unisexual, rarely hermaphrodite, in dense heads or catkins. 
Perianth 0, or of irregular scales or hairs. Stamens densely crowded ; fila- 
ments slender; anthers linear or ovoid, inserted by their bases. Carpels 
densely crowded, narrow, 1-celled, tapering- into a slender style, with a narrow 
unilateral stigma; ovule solitary, pendulous. Emit, small nuts or utricles. 
Seed pendulous ; embryo straight, in copious albumen. 
The following genera are the only ones known. 
Flowers in long, dense, cottony, brown cyliudric spikes 1. Typha. 
Flowers in globular heads . 2. Sparganium. 
1. TYPHA, Linn. 
Tall, erect, marsh or water herbs ; rootstock stout, creeping. Leaves all 
radical, long, linear, thick, flat, sheathing at the base.— -Flowers in 1 or 2 long, 
dense, cylindric, terminal superimposed catkins ; upper, or upper part if one 
only, male, lower female. Stamens mixed with hairs. Ovaries very minute, 
narrow, surrounded by hairs, which are thickened upwards, and form a copious 
brown, cottony mass. Nuts minute, slender, on slender stalks. 
A very common tropical and temperate genus, of very few species, called Reed-maces and 
often Bulrushes. 
1. T. angustifolia, Linn. ; — FI. N. Z. i. 238. Leaves 2-3 ft, long, 
broad. Scapes 1-8 ft. high, terete, solid, bearing 2 cylindric, brown catkins 
at the top, of which the upper or terminal is male, the lower female. — T. la- 
tifolia , Forster, not Linn. 
Northern Island: in marshes and river banks, Forster , etc. Common in all parts of 
the world, including the Pacific Islands, Norfolk Island, and Australia. I refer this to 
T. angustifolia because the catkins, male and female, are separated by an interval, but the 
stature is that of T. tatifolia, and I find the position of the catkins to vary extremely in 
tropical specimens of both. They are doubtless varieties of one plant. The present is ex- 
tensively used for making walls and roofs of houses. The pollen is made into loaves of bread 
by the natives, as in Seinde. 
2. SPARGANTUM, Linn. 
Roots fibrous. Stems erect, simple or branched. Leaves alternate, sheath- 
ing at the base, linear, grass-like, erect or floating. Flowering-branches ter- 
minal, simple or branched. — Flowers in sessile, globose, spiked or panicled 
heads, the lower with leafy bracts at their base. Upper heads male. Stamens 
mixed with minute scales. Lower heads larger, female. Ovaries sessile, each 
