Cotton Sedge

Cotton Sedge, a more accurate name for the genus Eriophorum, often called Cotton-grass, but belonging to the order Cyperaceae. It comprises about a dozen species, natives of North Temperate and Arctic regions, growing as perennial herbs mostly in bogs. The stem is often three-angled, as is also the fruit: the leaves are three-ranked; and the flowers, which are clustered in spikelets, are in the axils of imbricate glumes, are bisexual, and have four or more bristles round them in place of a perianth. These bristles afterwards elongate into long silky hairs, so as to form a tuft like the "lint" of cotton. Though not capable of being woven, not worth cultivation, and somewhat inaccessible to the gatherer, these tufts are used, under the name "Arctic Wool," for stuffing cushions.