Rushes and Sedges 187 



astonishingly. The first heavy autumnal rains give 

 it an opportunity to exercise its capabilities. 



In the moist atmosphere the ridges and horns 

 dissolve, and the seeds become embedded in a 

 mass of viscid jelly. The mass swells up, forces 

 its way through the slits in the now opened cap- 

 sule, and carries the seeds out with it. By ex- 

 posure to air and sun the mucilage becomes brit- 

 tle and powdery. Then the seeds are readily de- 

 tached from it and carried off by autumn gales to 

 seek their fortunes. 



One would think that this method of seed dis- 

 tribution might be unique. But it has been 

 adopted also by a little flower called "yellow- 

 eyed-grass" (Xyris flexuosa), which often lives as 

 neighbor to the water-rushes, and so must adapt 

 itself to similar conditions. Yet the cousinship be- 



I 



tween these two plant families is of that remote 

 degree which in human relations "counts for noth- 

 ing " north of Mason and Dixon's line. 



The seeds of both water-rushes and yellow- 

 eyed-grass are small and light, so that they can 

 be blown far afield in quest of an abiding place, 

 and they are long and narrow, and hence expose 

 a large proportionate surface to the wind. 



The ripe seed vessels of all the rushes are sur- 



