THE PRINCIPLES OP BOTANY. 
265 
will be well-known for the floor-cloths, baskets, mats, paper, 
&c., that are made from its species in different parts of the 
world ; and of our home forms, rushes of various kinds are 
not without their uses. 
Of the genus Scirpus, to which the different species of 
rush belongs, it may he well to remark that its agricultural 
indications are equally well marked with those of the Carex ; 
they are, however, more partial to wet clays, while the latter 
for the most part affect wet sands. 
If, then, w r e see rushes growing by the road-side, or in the 
meadow, they afford evidence of sub-stratum of clay, and 
thus they often aid the geologist in making out the boundaries 
of clay formations ; whilst as long as the meadow contains a 
single tuft of rush, it is not only an evidence of a stiff soil, 
hut that it requires draining ; and so certain is the action of 
a drain beneath a bed of rushes, that its perfection may be 
judged by the rapidity with which all such objectionable 
herbage dies out. 
Even irrigated meadows will not contain rushes unless the 
water stagnates in any part, when rushes very soon appear ; 
in which case the intelligent overseer of these, the “ drowner/’ 
will at once know what is the matter, and use his best efforts 
to prevent the stagnation. 
Carices are not common to water-meadows, as these seem 
best adapted for poor positions ; they however occur in the 
water courses, and sometimes do mischief in preventing the 
equable and ready flow of the water. So, also, a whole system 
of drainage may be vitiated by the water of an exit being 
kept up by the thickly growing and interlacing sedges. 
When this is the case they should be removed; and indeed at 
the present moment we are, in many parts of England, as 
much in want of legislative enactments to enforce the de- 
struction of these riparian weeds, as they in Holland have 
for their preservation. 
Seeing, then, that sedges and rushes are so valueless in 
pastures, it may not be improbable that they have something 
to do with the injuries to stock, which not uncommonly occur 
where they abound. Thus, in a Report made by us on the 
herbage of some fields in Somerset, which were, and are 
still, celebrated for producing splenic apoplexy, we could not 
resist the following conclusion : — 
“ As regards the pastures producing splenic apoplexy — 
these are for the most part in low positions, and subject to 
floodings from the river Yeo and its tributaries. They are 
more or less marshy and stagnant. They contain a mass of 
weeds (e.g. the Ranunculus acris , Carices , Rushes, &c.) of 
