[*][*] Flowers crowded in spikes or close clusters. (Plants 6–12´ high.)
3. L. campéstris, DC. Leaves flat, linear; spikes 4–12, somewhat umbelled, ovoid, straw-color, some of them long-peduncled, others nearly sessile; sepals bristle-pointed, longer than the obtuse capsules; seeds with a conical appendage at base.—Dry fields and woods, common. May. (Eu.)
4. L. arcuàta, Meyer. Leaves channelled, linear; spikes 3–5, on unequal often recurved peduncles, ovoid, chestnut-brown; bracts ciliate-fringed; sepals taper-pointed, longer than the obtuse capsule; seeds not appendaged.—Alpine summits of the White Mts. and far northward. (Eu.)
5. L. spicàta, Desvaux. Leaves channelled, narrowly linear; flowers in sessile clusters, forming a nodding interrupted spiked panicle, brown; sepals bristle-pointed, scarcely as long as the abruptly short-pointed capsule; seeds merely with a roundish projection at base.—With the last, and more common. (Eu.)
Order 122. TYPHÀCEÆ. (Cat-tail Family.)
Marsh or aquatic herbs, with nerved and linear sessile leaves, and monœcious flowers on a spadix or in heads, destitute of proper floral envelopes. Ovary 1–2-celled, with as many persistent styles and (usually elongated) 1-sided stigmas; cells 1-ovuled. Fruit nut-like when ripe, 1-seeded, rarely 2-seeded. Seed suspended, anatropous; embryo straight in copious albumen. Root perennial.
1. Typha. Flowers in a cylindrical compact terminal spike, spathe-like bract deciduous.
2. Sparganium. Flowers in globular heads with foliaceous bracts.
1. TỲPHA, Tourn. (Cat-tail Flag.)
Flowers in a long and very dense cylindrical spike terminating the stem; the upper part consisting of stamens only, inserted directly on the axis, and intermixed with long hairs; the lower part consisting of stipitate 1-celled ovaries, the stipes bearing club-shaped bristles, which form the copious down of the fruit. Nutlets minute, very long-stalked.—Spathes merely deciduous bracts, or none. Root-stocks creeping. Leaves long, sheathing the base of the simple jointless stems, erect, thickish. Flowering in summer. (Τύφη, the old Greek name.)