25 



the annexed plate these two different flowers have the 

 appearance of being on different plants, from the 

 want of the connecting root, which has been omitted 

 to increase the size of the representation. In a mild 

 season it blossoms in April, and ripens its seeds in 

 Jane and July. 



In Herefordshire, and other Flop counties, the 

 sedge is often used for tying up young Hop wires 

 to the poles, and it is also employed to make common 

 chair bottoms. 



Of its use and importance in Lapland, Linnaeus 

 has given a very interesting account, of which this is 

 Mr. Curtis's translation. 



" Thou wilt wonder, perhaps, curious reader, in 

 what manner human beings are capable of preserving 

 life during an immense severity of a winter's frost in 

 Lapland, a part of the world deserted on the approach 

 of winter by almost every kind of bird and beast. 



" The inhabitants of this inhospitable climate are 

 obliged to wander with their rein-deer flocks conti- 

 nually in the woods, not only in the day-time, but 

 through the longest winter nights; their cattle are 

 never housed, nor do they eat any other food than 

 liver- wort ; ' hence the herdsmen, to secure them from 

 w ild beasts, and other accidents, are of necessity kept 

 perpetually with them. The darkness of their nighu 

 is, in a degree, overcome and rendered more tolerable 

 by the light of the stars reflected from the snow, and 

 the Aurora Borealis, which in a thousand fantastic 



f This liver-wort is the Rcin-Di*cr Lichen, Class XXIV. 



