BULRUSH

bulrush, a name now generally given to _typha latifolia_, the reed-mace or club-rush, a plant growing in lakes, by edges of rivers and similar localities, with a creeping underground stem, narrow, nearly flat leaves, 3 to 6 ft. long, arranged in opposite rows, and a tall stem ending in a cylindrical spike, half to one foot long, of closely packed male (above) and female (below) flowers. the familiar brown spike is a dense mass of minute one-seeded fruits, each on a long hair-like stalk and covered with long downy hairs, which render the fruits very light and readily carried by the wind. the name bulrush is more correctly applied to _scirpus lacustris_, a member of a different family (cyperaceae), a common plant in wet places, with tall spongy, usually leafless stems, bearing a tuft of many-flowered spikelets. the stems are used for matting, &c. the bulrush of scripture, associated with the hiding of moses, was the _papyrus_ (_q.v._), also a member of the order cyperaceae, which was abundant in the nile.