I ]
TYPHA latifolk.
Great Cat’s-tail or Reed-macd.•
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 somewhat sword-shaped. Male
and female catkins close together.
Syn. Typha latifolia. Linn. Sp. PL 1377. Sm. FI.
Brit. 959. Iluds. 400. With. 1 1 1 . Hull. 203.
Relh. 360. Sibth. 25. Abbot. 199.
T . major. Curt. Land. fasc'. 3. t. 61.
Typha. Raii Syn. 436.
F r e q u e n t in pools, ditches and about the margins of slow
streams, growing in the water, and familiar to the most casual
observer by its tall stems and great mace-like brown spikes,
which flower in July. Some persons mistake it for the Bull-
rush, t. 666.
The creeping perennial roots run deep into the mud, and
soon fill up the bottom of a pool or clay-pit when undisturbed.
Stem about 6 feet or more in height, straight, simple, round,
solid, smooth, leafy at the bottom. Leaves erect, linear,
sharpish, smooth, flat, or at least very little convex beneath,
smooth on both sides, as tall as the stem, and from half an
inch to an inch wide. Catkin terminal, erect, continued; the
female part dark brown; the male yellowish, with a leaf or
two from the base or middle among the stamina. The an-
therae grow 2, 3 or 4 on each filament, so that it is not easy
to fix their proper number. They soon fall off, and leave a
naked stalk crowning the ripening seed-catkin. Each Seed
stands on a feathery stalk.