Rushes and Sedges 179 
rushes and sedges, like the grasses, have long, 
narrow leaves and swaying stems, so that gales 
can pass through and over them, leaving them un- 
harmed. 
The rushes were apparently the last of these 
three families to be adopted by the wind. Their 
flowers are small and humble, but the unlearned 
in botany would recognize them as flowers indeed, 
still showing a distinct likeness to their far-off 
cousins, the lilies. In the sedges the six leaves 
of the lily flower have become curiously changed 
or have been abolished altogether, and certain an- 
cestral traits are wellnigh obliterated. 
So the Nature-student will find the rushes the 
more approachable family of the two, and an ac- 
quaintance with them will prove the best means of 
introduction to the sedges, their distant cousins. 
We somehow expect a rush to be a vegetable 
of imposing proportions. Perhaps this is because 
the name is often given to the stately cat-tail 
flags. 
But the true rushes—in our latitudes, at least— 
are small affairs. The tallest are barely four feet 
high, and the least form a close mat upon the 
ground, in moist and sunny places. 
They are broadly divided into two groups, the 
