Rush

Rush, the popular name for members of the genus Juncus, the type of the monocotyledonous order Juncaceae, extended also to a few related or similar plants. There are about 100 species in the genus, mostly natives of temperate and arctic regions, 20 being British. They grow mostly in wet ground or in water, with cylindric leaves and branches and green or brown flowers in a dense cluster known as an anthela (q.v.). The flowers have six glumaceous perianth-Ieaves and six stamens, and are succeeded by a three-chambered, many-seeded capsule. J. conglomeratus, J. acutus, and others are used for chair-bottoms, baskets, hassocks, and mats, several hundred tons being imported annually, mostly from Holland. The stellate parenchyma or so-called "pith" in the centre of the branches and leaves of some species used to be employed as candle-wicks, and in still earlier times stone floors were strewed with rushes in lieu of carpets.