440 HEXAXDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Juncus. 
Stems like the last, but rather paler, very soft and pliable. Panicle loose 
and spreading, very much branched, with a multitude of small green 
Jlowers . Calyx-leaves finely pointed; the three outermost with a broad 
obtuse keel; innermost with two distant ribs. Siam, usually six ; rarely 
three only. Caps, small, obtuse, but rather less abrupt than in J. con¬ 
glomerate. 
Soft Rush. Seaves. Welsh: Pabwyren; Canwyll-fnvynen. Wet pas¬ 
tures and boggy places. P. July. £.)* 
(J. filifor'mis. Stem naked, thread-shaped, drooping: panicle nearly 
simple, corymbose, of few flowers, very far below the summit: 
bractea taper-pointed: capsule almost globular. 
Sm. Spicileg. t. 3 —E. Pot. 117 5—Leers 13. 4 —ScJieuch. 7. 11—Pluk. 40. 8 
— FI. Dan. 1207. 
Stems about a foot high, very slender, pliant, light green, drooping or 
curved above the panicle , which is usually situated about the middle, and 
consists of from five to eight green Jlowers, not more than two on each 
stalk, with a taper-pointed bractea at the base of the whole. Calyx ob¬ 
scurely ribbed. Caps, nearly as long as the calyx, tumid, and almost 
globose, with a small point. There are often a few barren stems. Stamens 
always six. 
* Rushes are sometimes used to make little baskets. 
(-“ Viminibus mollique detexere Junco .” 
In Japan it is cultivated for making mats of a delicate texture. E.) The pith of this and 
the preceding species is used instead of cotton to make the wicks of candles which are called 
rush-lights; (for the use of persons of condition numbers were twisted together, to the 
thickness of a man’s arm, or even of a man’s middle, says Ware. “ These rushes,” 
according to Mr. White’s interesting remarks on rural economy in his Nat. Hist. Selborne, 
“are in best condition in the height of summer. Decayed labourers, women, and children 
make it their business (in Hampshire), to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are 
cut they must be flung into water, and kept there ; or otherwise they will dry and shrink, 
and the peel will not run. At first, a person would find it no easy matter to divest a rush of 
its peel or rind, so as to leave one regular, narrow, even rib from top to bottom that may 
support the pith ; but this, like other feats, soon becomes familiar even to children; and we 
have seen an old woman stone blind performing this business with great dispatch, and sel¬ 
dom failing to strip them with the nicest regularity. When these Junci are thus far pre¬ 
pared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached and take the dew for some nights, and 
afterwards be dried in the sun. Some address is required in dipping these rushes in the 
scalding fat or grease. The careful wife of the industrious labourer saves the skimmings 
of her bacon-pot for this use, A little bee’s wax or mutton suet mixed with the grease, 
will give it consistency and make the rushes burn longer. A good rush, two feet four or 
six inches in length, will burn an hour, and give a good clear light. A pound of dry rushes 
contains about one thousand six hundred individuals. Supposing each of these to burn half 
an hour, then a poor man may purchase eight hundred hours of light, a time exceeding 
thirty three entire days, for three shillings, (the cost of a pound of medicated rushes), or 
five and a half hours of comfortable light for a farthing!” Rushes are still sometimes 
strewed over cottage floors, in humble substitution of the mat or carpet, a custom to which 
our observant Shakspeare repeatedly alludes. The gathering of Rushes lias long been a 
scene of merry making north of the Tweed ; affording one of the many occasions in the 
happier olden time for the joyful assembling of young persons of both sexes together ; and 
hence probably originated the ancient song, &c. of 
“ Green grow the Rashes , O!” 
and the more modern imitation of it by a genuine poet of nature, who lost no opportunity, 
however homely, of evincing his gallantry. E.) Horses and goats eat these species. 
