Gerard's Herbal Vol. 1
Fig. 21. Small Cat's-Tail Grass
The Description.
1. Great Cat's-tail Grass hath very small roots, compact of many small skins or threads, which may easily be taken from the whole root. The stalk riseth up in the midst, and is somewhat like unto wild Barley, kneed and jointed like corn, of a foot high or thereabout; bearing at the top a handsome round close compact ear resembling the cat's tail.
2. The small Cat's-tail grass is like unto the other, differing chiefly in that it is lesser than it. The root is thick and cloved like those of Rush Onions, or Chives, with many small strings or hairy threads annexed unto it.
3. There is another that grows plentifully in many places about London, the which may fitly be referred to this classis. The root thereof is a little bulb, from whence ariseth a stalke some two foot or better high, set at each joint with long grassy leaves: the spike or ear is commonly four or five inches long, closely and handsomely made in the fashion of the precedent, which in the shape it doth very much resemble.
The Place and Time.
These kinds of Grass do grow very well near watery places, as Gramen Cyperoides doth, and flourish at the same time that all the others do.
The latter may be found by the bridge entering into Chelsea field, as one goeth from Saint James to little Chelsea.
The Names.
The Latins call it Gramen Typhinum, of Typha, a Cat's tail: and it may in English as well be called Round Bent-Grass, as Cat's-tail Grass.
The last described is by Bauhin, who first gave the figure and description thereof in his Prodomus, pag. 10, called Gramen Typhoides maximum spica longissima; that is, the largest Fox-tail Grass with a very long ear.