Rushes and Sedges 179 



rushes and sedges, like the grasses, have long, 

 narrow leaves and swaying stems, so that gales 

 can pass through and over them, leaving them un- 

 harmed. 



The rushes were apparently the last of these 

 three families to be adopted by the wind. Their 

 flowers are small and humble, but the unlearned 

 in botany would recognize them as flowers indeed, 

 still showing a distinct likeness to their far-off 

 cousins, the lilies. In the sedges the six leaves 

 of the lily flower have become curiously changed 

 or have been abolished altogether, and certain an- 

 cestral traits are wellnigh obliterated. 



So the Nature-student will find the rushes the 

 more approachable family of the two, and an ac- 

 quaintance with them will prove the best means of 

 introduction to the sedges, their distant cousins. 



We somehow expect a rush to be a vegetable 

 of imposing proportions. Perhaps this is because 

 the name is often given to the stately cat-tail 

 flags. 



But the true rushes in our latitudes, at least 

 are small affairs. The tallest are barely four feet 

 high, and the least form a close mat upon the 

 ground, in moist and sunny places. 



They are broadly divided into two groups, the 



