300 BRITISH GRASSES. 



for plaster partitions. In Sweden, a dye suitable foi 

 woollen cloth is made from the flowers. Until, in the 

 seventh century, quill pens came into use, all pens were 

 made from the stems of reeds. They are even yet used 

 occasionally for arrows. The young shoots cut from the 

 root, where they are not exposed to the light, make an 

 excellent pickle. 



Many as are the uses of reeds, we do not recommend 

 their culture on land that is fit for a better crop, but 

 there are few farms where there is not either a marshy 

 slip of land by the side of river or brook, or a shallow 

 pond, and in either of these situations, where nothing 

 else would grow, Reed roots should be introduced, and a 

 lucrative harvest will soon succeed. 



On marsh land which has been drained and the reeds 

 thereon have to be got rid of, if the drains be deeper 

 than the roots the battle will soon be at an end, and the 

 formerly welcome reeds be killed by thirst ; or they 

 may be ploughed to death, or choked with ashes and 

 soot. 



The reed forest is a spot dear to the little brown 

 Sedge Warbler, and she builds her nest, suspending it 

 betw r een the stems, and lays her eggs there. Withering 

 states that entomologists find a great variety of insects 

 on this Arundo ; they resort in numbers to the dense 

 panicle, which affords them at once food and shelter. 

 Wildfowl find a welcome cover in the reed-banks. 



Arundo Phragmites is very common in England, Scot- 

 land, and Ireland. In Somersetshire and Wiltshire it 

 fills or borders large ponds, and the harvest is reaped from 

 a punt ; miles of ditches in Durham are peopled by reed 

 stems. As we traverse the length of the United King- 

 dom at railway speed, the perpetually changing scene of 



