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J.
TYPHA anmo istifolia.
Lesser Cat’s-tail or Reed-mace.
MONOECIA Triandria.
Gen* Char. Male, Catkin cylindrical, hairy. Antherce
about 3 together on each filament.
Female, Catkin cylindrical. Seed 1, on a feathered
stalk.
Spec. Char. Leaves flatfish, semicylindrical beneath.
Catkins a little distant; leafless.
Syn. Typha angustifolia. Linn. Sp. PI. 1377. Sm.
FI. Brit. 959. Huds. 400. With. 1 1 1 . Hull. 203.
Relh. 360. Abbot. 199. Fl. Dan. t. 815.
T. minor. Curt. Land. fa$c. 3. t. 62.
T . palustris media. Rail Syn. 436.
M u c h more rare than the last. Curtis found it in the
middle of Woolwich Common. We have observed it in clay-
pits in several parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, but scarcely in
any other county. It flowers in July.
This is in all its parts much smaller and more slender than
the preceding, though nearly equal to it in height. The leaves
are more convex on the under side, and not half so broad.
Its most essential mark of distinction consists in the bare
space always observable between the male and female catkins.
The roughness between the stamina, which in the former is
formed of slender hairs, in this consists of chaffy scales. The
fruit-bearing catkin sometimes splits longitudinally in growing.
We think Linnaeus’s original names preferable to those of
Curtis, for though major might suit the first species, media,
more properly belongs to this; the minor of old Authors being
still smaller, and very different.