RUSH TRIBE 5 
and of a pale green hue. It is rare, growing on the stony margins of lakes 
in the English Lake District, and in Kincardineshire. It is about ten or 
twelve inches high. 
6. Lesser Sharp Sea Rush (J. maritimus).—Stem wiry, naked, the 
barren leaf-like ones very sharp pointed ; cyme loose, near the summit ; 
outer bracts spinous ; stamens 6; capsule oblong, spine-tipped, as long as 
the perianth ; rootstock tufted and fibrous. This is not a generally dis- 
tributed Rush ; but it grows among the sand-grasses by the sides of some 
salt rivers, and in salt marshes in various parts of the kingdom : 
** On ocean’s marge, 
‘Whose mellow reeds are touch’d with sounds forlorn 
By the dim echoes of old Triton’s horn.” 
It is rare in Scotland. In places where it is plentiful, it aids, with the other 
plants, to consolidate marshy and muddy soils. Its stems are slender, about 
two feet high, and its very pale brown flowers appear in August, in a long 
loose panicle. Its stems have leafy clammy sheaths at their base. 
7. Great Sharp Sea Rush (J. actus). —Stem rigid, naked, sharp- 
pointed ; cyme dense, near the summit; outer bracts spinous; capsule 
broadly egg-shaped, suddenly terminating in a point ; segments of perianth 
about half as long as the capsule; rootstocks tufted. This, which is the 
largest of our native Rushes, is truly a magnificent plant, and cannot fail to 
attract the observation of those who wander among the sand-hills, or the 
no less dreary salt-marshes where it grows. Its large clumps of tall, stiff, 
straight stems, looking like masses of rigid deep green leaves, are from three 
to six feet in height ; and in July the crowded panicles of brown flowers are 
conspicuous at the tops of the stems, though not nearly so much so as the 
large, glossy, bright brown capsules, which, in September and October, suc- 
ceed them. ‘These are so handsome, that we are fain to gather them to 
mingle with the few seaside flowers yet left to the autumn; but safer far 
would it be for the hand to grasp the seaside holly, with all its prickles, than 
to encounter this sharp Rush, which has penetrated many an unguarded 
finger with no slight wound. This plant grows on the shores of Norfolk, 
and some other counties ; but it is rare, occurring chiefly on the south and 
west coasts of England and Wales. On the sandy shores about Sandwich, 
in Kent, and between that place and Pegwell Bay, as well as on some of the 
neighbouring salt-marshes, clumps of this plant may be seen often near the 
roadside, with masses of tall green fennel waving near them. It is also 
found in South and South-East Ireland and the Channel Islands. This Rush 
is also planted on some of our shores, to preserve them from the encroach- 
ments of the sea; for its fibrous roots 1un far down into the light soft soil, 
forming a matted mass, which aids in its consolidation. The stems are 
plaited into ropes, baskets and mats. 
* * Stems leafy ; leaves rounded, or somewhat flattened, jointed internally. 
8. Sharp-flowered Jointed Rush (J. aciitiflorus).—Stems and leaves 
slightly flattened ; cyme repeatedly compound ; segments of the perianth 
unequal, very acute, nearly as long as the egg-shaped taper-pointed capsule ; 
stamens 6; rootstock creeping. ‘This is a slender plant, one or two feet 
