188 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
rounded by the dry petals and sepals of the little 
flower, and by the same token we can always dis- 
tinguish a rush from the wind’s other fosterlings 
afield (Fig. 51). 
The sedges can readily be recognized and known 
from the grasses, their next of kin, for grass-stems 
are usually hollow and always round, while those 
of the sedges are solid, and, at least toward their 
tips, triangular. Moreover, sedges grow in tus- 
socks, and grasses form a close, continuous mat 
upon the ground. 
The bases of sedge-leaves are not merely 
wrapped about the stem, after the fashion of 
the grasses, but they form seamless, tubular 
sheaths, which invest it closely. 
In old England all sedges were included under 
the name of ‘‘shear-grass,’”’ a term applied to 
them on account of the sharp or scissor-like edges 
of their narrow leaves. 
The same characteristic got them the name by 
which we know them, for ‘‘sedge” and ‘‘saw”’ 
are both derived from an old Teutonic word, 
which means ‘‘to cut.” 
The leaves are disposed along the stem in what 
is known as the ‘‘three-ranked arrangement,” the 
fourth, as one counts upward, being directly 
