102 COMMON RUSH. 
to be eaten with their food. Many of the walking 
canes which we see in Europe are formed of the young 
hoots of this plant. 
The Chinese make a kind of frame-work of bamboo, 
by which they are enabled to float in water ; and the 
Chinese merchants, when going on a voyage, always 
provide themselves with this simple apparatus to save 
their lives in case of shipwreck. It is formed by 
placing four bamboos horizontally across each other, 
so as to leave, in the middle, a square place for the 
body ; and, when used, this frame is slipped over the 
head, and secured by being tied to the waist. 
114. The COMMON RUSH (Juncus effusus) is known 
by its green, smooth, stiff, upright, leafless and pointed stem ; 
having a loose bunch of small flowers at the side, and the seed- 
vessels blunt at the extremity. 
Although the rush is generally considered by farmers 
a noxious weed in wet meadows and pastures, it is ap- 
plicable to a variety of useful purposes ; but particu- 
larly for making the wicks of rushlights. For this pur- 
pose it is usually cut a little after Midsummer ; and is 
immediately afterwards thrown into water, and kept 
there, that it may not become dry, and that it may 
be the more easily peeled. 
At first a person would find it no easy matter to 
divest, a rush of its rind, so as to leave on each side, 
from top to bottom, one regular, narrow, and even rib, 
that may support the pith. But this, by practice, soon 
becomes familiar even to children. 
When rushes are thus far prepared, they are spread 
on the grass to be bleached ; and, .afterwards, they are 
dried in the sun for use. 
If only one rib of peel be left, instead of two, rushes 
will supply the place of cotton wicks for candles. In 
some parts of Hampshire the labouring people form 
wicks of this description ; they dip them into scalding 
fat or grease, and use them in place of candles. 
