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PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
British plants, bearing on a long straight stem a large umbel 
of very handsome pink flowers. Wherever there is a pond 
in a garden, these fine Rushes should have a place, though 
they may be grown in the open border where the ground is 
not too dry. 
There is a story told by Sir John Mandeville in connection 
with Rushes which is not easy to understand. According to 
his account, our Saviour’s crown of thorns was made of 
Rushes! “And zif alle it be so that men seyn that this 
Croune is of Thornes, zee shall undirstande that it was of 
Jonkes of the See, that is to sey, Russhes of the See, that 
prykken als scharpely as Thornes. For I have seen and 
beholden many times that of Parys and that of Constanty- 
noble, for thei were bothe on, made of Russches of the See. 
But men have departed hem in two parties, of the which on 
part is at Parys, and the other part is at Constantynoble—and 
I have on of the precyouse Thornes, that semethe licke a 
white Thorn, and that was zoven to me for great specyaltee. 
. . . The Jewes setten him in a chayere and clad him in a 
mantelle, and then made thei the Croune of Jonkes of the 
See .”—Voiage and Travaile , c. 2. 
I have no certainty to what Rush the pleasant old traveller 
can here refer. I can only guess that as Rushes and Sedges 
were almost interchangeable names, he may have meant the 
Sea Holly, formerly called the Holly-sedge, of which there is 
a very appropriate account given in an old Saxon runelay 
thus translated by Cockayne: “ Hollysedge hath its dwelling 
oftenest in a marsh, it waxeth in water, woundeth fearfully, 
burneth with blood (/. e. draws blood and pains) every one of 
men who to it offers any handling.” 1 
1 I leave this as I first wrote it, but I have to thank Mr. Britten for the 
very probable suggestion that Sir John Mandeville was right. Not only 
does the Juncus acutus 46 prykken als scharpely as Thornes,” but 44 what is 
shown in Paris at the present day as the crown of Thoms is certainly, as 
Sir John says, made of rushes; the curious may consult M. Rohault de 
Fleury’s sumptuous 4 Memoire sur les Instruments de la Passion/ for a full, 
description of it.” 
