WEEDS OP THE RUSH FAMILY. 



59 



hoeing throughout the season; keep fence rows clean; thick seed- 

 ing with clover or timothy. 



An allied species, the straw-colored sedge (C. strigosus L.) dif- 

 fering in propagating by solid bulb-like tubers from the base, the 

 spikes longer and more loose and achenes linear-oblong, is also a 

 common weed in damp soils. Remedies the same. 



THE RUSH FAMILY. JUNCACE^E. 



Perennial or annual grass-like herbs, often growing in tufts; 

 stems usually simple, slender, cylindrical; leaf -blades terete, grass- 

 like or channeled, the sheaths with free margins. Flowers small, 

 clustered; sepals and petals 6, chaff-like, without scales or glumes 

 beneath them as in the two preceding families; stamens 3 or 6; 

 ovary 1- or 3-celled with 3 stigmas. Fruit a small capsule opening 

 at the sides ; seeds usually numerous. 



Only about 25 kinds of rushes are known from the State. They 

 usually occur on the sandy beaches of lakes or along the borders 

 of marshes and swamps and resemble sedges but have the parts 

 of the small flowers in threes, like the lily family, but not showy 

 as there. Neither the scouring rush nor the tall bulrushes belong 

 to this family, so that their names are misleading. Only one of 

 the true rushes is with us to be considered as a weed. 



1.2. JUNCUS TENUIS Willd. Wire-grass. Slender Rush. Yard Rush. (P. N. 3.) 

 Stems erect, slender, tufted, wiry, 8-20 inches high; true leaves all 



basal, flat, linear, half the length of stem ; leaf-like bract just below ths 



flowering portion longer than the latter. 

 Sepals and petals green, lanceolate, acute, 

 spreading, longer than the egg-shaped cap- 

 sule; stamens 6. Seeds narrowly oblong 

 with oblique ends, very small, delicately 

 ribbed and cross-lined. (Fig. 27.) 



Common in dry or moist soil, espe- 

 cially along woodland pathways, bor- 

 ders of fields and roadsides. June- 

 Aug. The stems are full of elasticity 

 and after being trodden upon by man 

 or beast spring erect, apparently un- 

 harmed. It is this property of upris- 

 ing after adversity which enables the 

 wire-grass to thrive along the path- 

 ways and crowd therefrom the more valuable blue-grass which re- 

 mains down when crushed beneath the heel or hoof. Remedies: 

 sheep-grazing; thorough cultivation where found in fields. 



Fig. 27. 



Showing fruit and seed. 

 Britton and Brown.) 



(Alter 



