The Book of Grasses 



with scattered rushes, and that in Shakespeare's time the stage 

 was strewn with these plants. 



Rush-Hghts of bygone days were prepared from the pith of 

 certain plants of this genus. The round stems were gathered in 

 late summer and were placed in water for a short time. The pith 

 was then carefully taken from the stems, and after being left out 

 in the dew for several nights was dried, and dipped in scalding fat. 



THE WOOD-RUSHES. (Lunula) 



While searching for the earliest hepatica or arbutus the soft, 

 reddish green leaves of the Common Wood-rush (Lunula campestris) 

 are often seen. This rush is one of our earliest flowering plants, 

 and appears while the turf still remains brown from winter's 

 frosts. Common Wood-rush grows in tiny tufts and is found in 

 many locations from dry, open woodlands to low marshes, and 

 through all the summer months the plant remains noticeable as 

 its ripening seeds bend the slender stems earthward with increas- 

 ing weight. There is seldom a rocky pasture that does not show 

 a few of the reddish umbels spreading from the low growth that so 

 universally surrounds each firmly embedded stone, while a favour- 

 ite location is near the borders of open woods, where later the 

 Pennsylvania Sedge carpets the ground beneath white birches 

 and low-growing oaks. When the flat, rather broad leaves first 

 appear they are sparingly fringed with silky white hairs. The 

 plant is rarely more than a foot in height and the blossoming umbel 

 is composed of short branches which bear small, densely flowered 

 spikes. 



The Hairy Wood-rush {Lunula saltuensis) prefers dry, wooded 

 banks and is distinguished from the more common species by the 

 one-flowered, hair4ike divisions of the umbel, by the more numer- 

 ous long hairs on the leaves, and by the perianth which differs 

 from that of the other in being shorter than its capsule. 



The generic name of the Wood-rushes, Lunula, is said to have 

 been derived from the Italian word for glow-worm, and probably 

 referred to the shining seed-capsules. 



338 



