156 THE BOG. 



the grasses, which are universally furnished with 

 round stems. With the exception of contributing 

 to the formation of peat, and helping to bind to- 

 gether the soil which composes the banks of rivers, 

 the sedges are of little service to man. The leaves 

 of the larger kinds, however, are used in Kent 

 for tying hops to the poles ; and, according to 

 Linnaeus, the leaves of some species, after having 

 been combed and dressed, like flax, are used by 

 the Laplanders as a lining for gloves and shoes ; 

 their hands and feet when thus protected, he says, 

 are never frost-bitten. 



Cotton-grass,* called in Scotland canna, affords 

 a vegetable silk, which is said to have been occa- 

 sionally woven into articles of dress. But, although 

 this may have been done as a matter of curiosity, 

 the fibre is evidently too weak to be applied to any 

 really serviceable use as clothing. It may, how- 

 ever, in default of a more elastic substance, be ad- 

 vantageously used to stuff mattresses and pillows. 



Rushes are too well known to need any de- 

 scription. They were formerly used in England 

 for strewing the floors of rooms, a custom which 

 has disappeared since the introduction of carpets. 

 For this purpose the Sweet-sedge f was preferred, 

 on account of its agreeable aromatic odour. But, 

 this plant not being abundant, it is most likely 

 that common rushes were used on ordinary occa- 

 sions. One of the charges brought against Cardinal 

 Wolsey, in the reign of Henry VIII., was that of 

 extravagance, in having his room strewed too fre- 

 quently with rushes. The plant used on this 

 occasion was probably the Sweet-sedge, which 



* Eriophorum. f Acorus Calamus. 



