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grass, all used in making hay. Other grasses of interest 
are: sweet vernal-grass, exhaling a pleasant odor when 
bruised; the Japanese plume-grass, in several forms, very 
ornamental; the ribbon-grass, a variegated form of the reed 
canary-grass, and also ornamental; and species of many 
other genera. 
The sedges are represented mainly by the large genus 
Carex, of which there are many species, native in the United 
States, growing in swamps, meadows and woodlands. 
Fraser’s sedge (Cymophyllus Fraseri), is a striking plant 
from the southeastern United States, at one time one of the 
rarest of plants, but rediscovered in recent years in large 
quantities in the mountains of North Carolina. The 
tussock sedge, common in our swamps in early spring, the 
cat-tail sedge, Gray’s sedge and the fox sedge, are others 
belonging to the genus Carex. ‘There are also representa- 
tives of bullrushes and other sedges. 
Following the sedges is the arum family, having as repre- 
sentative plants, familiar to many, the skunk cabbage, the 
green arrow-arum, the green dragon, the jack-in-the-pulpit, 
and the sweet flag. In the brook opposite to this family 
may be found the somewhat related duckweed family; the 
duckweeds (Lemna) are very common, these tiny plants 
sometimes occurring in such numbers as to cover the surface 
of ponds and slowly moving streams. Coming now to the 
spiderwort family, we have represented mainly the spider- 
worts and day-flowers. In a small pool and along its 
eastern edge is placed the pickerel-weed family. Here 
may be found a large clump of the pickerel-weed (Ponte- 
deria) which is common in swamps and along streams in 
the vicinity of New York; here may also be found the 
water-hyacinth, which has become such a pest in some of 
the rivers of Florida and the West Indies, and the closely 
related blue water-hyacinth, of more straggling habit, also 
of tropical origin, planted out in summer. 
The rush family occurs next in the sequence, represented, 
among others, by such familiar plants as the common bog- 
