110
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
but may be distinguished under a lens by having many (about
eleven) equal and parallel veins running between rows of very
long rectangular air-chambers. Both the cortex and central
cylinder of the creeping stems are firm and compact in substance,
and are traversed with a system of small intercellular air spaces.
The cells are richly stored with starch.
In Lyte's Herbal (translated from
Dodoen's Cruydeboeck in 1578) the
English names for this sedge are "the
pole Rushe, or bull Rushe, or Mat
Rushe: in French "Jonc a cabas,"
that is to say, "The frayle Rushe or
panier Rushe, because they used to
make figge frayles and paniers there-
withal." Up to the present day the
Great Sedge is still harvested, and
bundles of the long dried stems are
sent over from Holland to be woven
into matting. In Ann Hathaway's
cottage near Stratford on Avon, where
the old furniture has been reverently
kept as it was in Shakespeare's time.
We found that the founda-
tion of a bed on which the
mattress Would rest, was
woven from these stems,
and it looked still in good
condition. Scirpus lacu-
stris is a good instance of
FIG. 7. how widely water plants
may be distributed; it flourishes in all temperate regions of
both the northern and southern hemispheres.
In the Pond-weed family, Naiadaceae, the formation of
submerged narrow leaves is characteristic of the whole group,
and very often these only are produced. An example may be
seen in the Grass Wrack, Zostera marina, whose long glossy
deep green ribbon-leaves form extensive beds off the Essex coast
near Walton and elsewhere. It is one of the very few flowering-
plants that has taken to salt-water life. Although it does
not grow within the wash of breaking waves, Grass Wrack