e is given for ague. With sugar it makes an
agreeable cordial conserve. (See _Flag (Sweet)_, _page_ 201 ). For
preserving the aromatic qualities within the dried rhizome; or root, it
should be kept in stock unpeeled. This contains "oleum calami," and
the bitter principle "acorin." Some of the root may be habitually
chewed for the relief of chronic indigestion. The odorous delights of
a pastoral time passed near these sweetly-fragrant plants have been
happily alluded to in the well-known lines of idyllic verse:--

"Green grow the Rushes, oh!
Green grow the Rushes, oh!
The sweetest hours that e'er I spent
Were spent among the lasses, oh!"

"Virent junci fluviales,
Junci prope lymphas:
Ah! quain ridet quoe me videt
Hora inter Nymphas!"

[481] The old saying, "As fit as Tib's Rush for Tom's fore-finger,"
alludes to an ancient custom of making spurious marriages with a
ring constructed from a Rush. Tom and Tib were vulgar epithets
applied in Shakespeare's time to the rogue, and the wanton.

The Bulrush (_Scirpus lacustris_) is a tall, aquatic plant, which
belongs to the Sedge tribe. It name was formerly spelt "Pole Rush,"
and was given because this grows in pools of water, and not like
other Rushes, in mire. Bottoms of chairs are frequently made with
its stems. Its seed is prepared medicinally, being astringent and
somewhat sedative; "So soporiferous," says Gerard, "that care must
be had in the administration thereof, lest in provoking sleep you
induce a drowsiness, or dead sleep." Street hawkers, in Autumn,
offer as Bulrushes the tall, round spikes of the Great Reed Mace,
which is not a true Rush. Artists are responsible in the first instance
for the mistake--notably Paul De la Roche, in his famous picture of
"The Finding of Moses." The future great leader of the Israelites is
there depicted in an ark amid a forest of Great Cat's-tail Reeds.

The flowering Rush, or water gladiole, which grows by the banks of
rivers is called botanically "butomus," from the Greek, _bous_, an
ox, and _temno_, to cut, because the sharp edges of the erect
three-cornered leaf-blades wound the cattle which come in contact with
them, or try to eat them. Its root is highly esteemed in Russia for the
cure of hydrophobia, being regarded by the doctors as a specific for
that disease. Its flowers are large, and of a splendid rose colour. The
seeds promote the monthly flow in women, act on disordered
kidneys, pro