Monocotyledons with Petaloid Flowers . 
117 
Natural Order 
TYPHACE£. 
Diagnosis.— -Herbs, growing in wet places, with long, narrow, erect leaves. 
Flowers monoecious, naked or with a scaly perianth, in dense spikes or 
globose heads. Fruit dry, 1-seeded. Seed albuminous. 
Distribution. —A Natural Order of but two small genera, of which one, Bulrush ( Typha ), is 
widely scattered over the Globe; the other, Bur-reed ( Sparganium ), is chiefly confined to the cooler 
regions of the North Temperate zone. 
Number of British Genera, 2 ; Species, 5. 
Flowers in Bulrush in a very dense cylindrical spike ; the staminate flowers above, the pistillate below ; 
continuous with each other in Great Bulrush ( T. latifolia ), separated by a short interval in Lesser Bulrush ( T . angust- 
ifolia): the pistillate flowers with numerous hair-like filaments from the stalk of the ovary : flowers of Bur-reed in 
globose heads, the upper consisting of numerous stamens intermixed with minute scales ; the lower of crowded 
ovaries with rudimentary scaly perianths. 
USES, &c.—The rhizome of Typha contains a coarse astringent farina, collected in Asia for medicinal purposes 
and also as food. The pollen is occasionally gathered and made up into cakes, which are eaten in India and New 
Zealand. 
