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T Y P H A minor.
Dwarf Cat’s-tail or Reed-mace.
MONOECIA Triandria.
Gen. Char. Male, Catkin cylindrical, hairy. Anthera?
about 3 together on each filament.
Female, Catkin cylindrical. Seed 1, on a feathered
stalk.
Spec. Char. Leaves linear, convex beneath. Catkins
a little distant; the male leafy; female short and
turgid.
Syn. Typha minor. Sm, FI. Brit. 960. Bank. Hist. v. 2.
540. Lob. Ic. 81.
T. angustifolia /3. Linn. Sp. PL 1378. Huds. 400.
T. palustris minor. Dill, in Rail Syn. 436.
T . palustris minima, duplici clava. Moris. Sect. 8.
t. 13. ƒ. 3.
M r . DANDRIDGE is said by Dillenius to have found this
on Hounslow heath; and as the plant was well known and distinguished
by botanists of that time, though confounded by
Linnaeus with T. angustifolia, we presume there could be no
mistake about it. We have never seen any other than Genevan
specimens; but having lately obtained more perfect ones
than are described in the FI. Brit, or any other work, those
hitherto figured or mentioned having been defective in the
proper leaves, we venture to present them to the English botanist.
The root is perennial and creeping, and the whole habit like
the two preceding species, but the plant much smaller than
even the last, the stem being only 12 or 18 inches high and
very slender, sheathed with broad scales about half its length,
which have hitherto been described and figured as the leaves.
The real leaves however spring from a different parcel of similar
scales, and are about as long as the stem, scarcely a line
in breadth, slightly convex beneath and concave above. The
catkins are each about an inch long, a little distant from each
other, slender; the male with a leaf or two at its base, middle
or sum m i t ; the female often divided and becoming propor-
tionably very thick and swollen as it ripens seed. The receptacle
seems to be nearly smooth, and the anthera are
seldom more than one to each filament.