264 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
tive of the quality of the meadow, These are mostly of the 
rougher kinds ; and it is in this way that the sedges are ap- 
proached by poor grasses, the herbage of which is usually of a 
glaucus colour, in this respect simulating the sedge. They have 
much the same habits as the poorer grasses : which are usually 
accompanied in a meadow by different species of sedges. 
Sedges, like grasses, seem to be capable of accommodating 
themselves to very varied physical conditions being, as ex- 
pressed by Professor Lindley, “ Found in marshes, ditches, 
and running streams, in meadows and on heaths, in groves 
and forests, on the blowing sands of the sea-shore, on the 
tops of mountains, from the arctic to the antarctic circle, 
wherever Phoenogamous vegetation can exist.” Humbolt 
remarks that, in Lapland, sedges are equal to grasses ; but 
that thence from the temperate zone to the equator, in the 
northern hemisphere the proportion of sedges to grasses very 
much diminishes. 
The better kinds of pasture grasses are remarkable for the 
quantity of sugar which they contain, while the poorer forms 
have in the place of sweetness a bitter extractive principle, 
rendering them unpalatable to cattle. This quality, which is 
exceptional in grasses, is an abiding characteristic of the 
Cyperacese. To this bitter in some species is added demulcent 
and diaphoretic properties, on which account the rhizomata 
of Carex arenaria , disticha , and liirta are used in medicine 
under the name of German Sarsaparilla. It is doubtless 
often sold and used for this drug, the incautious pharmaceutist 
not recognising the difference between the rhizomata of 
Smilax Sarsaparilla and Carex arenaria ; and it is not impro- 
bable that after all there may not be much difference in their 
active principles, whatever these may be, as we conclude 
them both to be remarkable for the absence of activity. 
This rhizomatous habit has caused some species of sedge 
to be highly valued for their property of keeping together 
banks of rivers, and preventing the incursions of the sea. 
Thus the banks of the Ganges are protected by Carex 
inundatus ; whilst in Holland, the Carex arenaria , according 
to Royle, “ is carefully planted on the dikes, where its far- 
extending roots, by mutually interlacing with each other, 
fix the sand and give strength to the embankment.” 
The fitness of these so-called roots for their purpose may 
be judged from the fact that we have traced them, and indeed 
carefully abstracted them, as much as thirty-six feet in 
length. 
Some of the family are extensively used for various manu- 
facturing and domestic purposes ; hence the genus Papyrus 
