Rushes and Sedges 185 
The rush flowers are very dependent upon their 
present messenger, the wind, for the pistils, in 
most of the species, ripen first. So they are 
ready for pollen before the home-grown pollen is 
ready for them, and must use the life-giving dust 
which is blown to them from older flowers. 
The ripe pollen is smooth and powdery, so that 
it may readily be detached by the wind and 
borne away, but the anthers do not sway at 
the lips of slender filaments, as they do in the 
thorough- going wind- fertilized blossoms of the 
grasses. 
The seeds of the wood-rushes are matured by 
midsummer. 
Those of the water-rushes are not ripe till 
August or September. 
Both sorts are borne in dry capsules, which split 
into three valves, setting the seeds free. 
But the wood-rush capsules have just three seeds 
apiece, while those of the water-rushes contain a 
large number. 
It is not uncommon for water-loving plants to 
put a relatively enormous progeny forth upon the 
world, for seedlings which cannot thrive unless 
they keep their feet wet are peculiarly the victims 
of chance and change. Many will begin life in 
