SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



grass-like plants which offer some resistance to 

 the sand storm. It is a smaller plant, with tri- 

 angular rough stems, scarcely more than a foot 

 high, and yellow spikes of flowers ; but it is so 

 common, that it is truly a serviceable sedge on 

 our coasts, its wide and numerous suckers creep- 

 ing among the loose sands. Several sedge plants 

 are equally useful in other places, for in some 

 cases they are the only vegetation on swamps, and, 

 by their growth and decay, ultimately prepare 

 a soil fitted for the growth of pasture. 



Our mat-grass or sea-reed seems to be one of the 

 grasses called " bents " by our older writers, " with 

 which we in London," says Gerarde, " do usually 

 adorn our chimneys in summer-time, and we com- 

 monly call the bundle of it, handsomely made up 

 for use, by the name of bents." According to the 

 old poets, there was a regular succession of these 

 simple chimney ornaments, suitable to the season. 

 Thus Herrick, having named some of those of the 

 earlier months, says, 



" When yew is out, then birch conies in, 



And many flowers beside, 

 Both of a fresh and fragrant skin, 

 To honour Whitsuntide. 



" Green rushes then, and sweetest bents, 



With cooler oaken boughs, 

 Come in for comely ornaments 

 To readorn the house." 



And though the various kinds of reeds and rushes, 

 and grassy plants, are not of domestic value, as 

 they were when they were strewed on floors, and 

 when men blamed Cardinal Wolsey for his extra- 

 vagance, because he had his strewings changed so 

 often, yet in villages, remote from large cities, the 

 sedge has its economical purposes, as the dim 

 D 



