SEDGE, plants of the natural order Cyperacete, a large tribe of grass-like plants with solid though slender stems, and the sheaths of the leaves not split in front as in grasses. Growing in every country, and some of the species widely dis tributed, are found on the sea-shore, on the tops of mountains, in marshes, ditches, and running streatns, on meadows and in forests, and several of them furnish useful products. Hassocks, niats, brushes, etc., are made of the wiry steins and leaves of species of sedge (Carex). A few secrete fecula in their tuberous root - stocks, as the water - chesnut of the Chinese, etc. ; others secrete a little volatile oil, as Cyperus longus and C. rotundus. The creeping rhizomes of Carex arenaria, and of a few allied species, are some times used medicinally under the name of German sarsaparilla. An Indian species, Cyperus tegetum, Roxb., called Papyrus pangorei by Nees von Esen beck, the Madoorkati of the Bengalese, and which is extremely common about Calcutta and in Bengal, is very extensively employed for making the elegant, shining, and useful mats for which the capital of India is famous, and which are frequently imported into Europe. The cubits or stalks of the plant when green are split into three or four pieces, which in drying contract so much a,s to bring the margins in contact, in which state they are woven into mats, and thus show a nearly similar surface on both sides. The strips are tied upin bundles about 4 inches in diameter and 4 feet in length, and seem also well adapted for making paper and ropes. The papyrus of the Egypt ians belongs to this order, and is still-called Babeer in Syria. It is about 15 feet high the exterior tunic of tbe stems, eut in bands and pressed, formed the paper of ancient Egypt and Europe ; the leaves, which are several feet long, served for the same purpose, but were of inferior quality. This paper is but little liable to decay. Pliny, for instance, relates that the book of the laws of Numa was found in Rome in a high state of preservation, after having been buried nearly six centuries in the earth.
The cotton grass, Eriophorum of Europe, is a conspicuous ornament of tuft-bogs and marshy moors, from having its seeds clothed at the base with a silky or eotton-like substance. 1Vith this pillows tiro sometimes stuffed, and wicks of candles, as well as paper, made. There is a species of the genus very common in the Hima laya, both in low valleys and at considerable elevations. This, Dr. Boyle named Eriophorum
cannabintnn, in consequence of his finding it everywhere employed in making ropes for all ordinary purposes by the mountaineers. Its name, bhabhur ana bliabliuree, has a considerable resemblance to that of the papyrus, considering that the b and p are letters so frequently inter changed for each other. All who have scrambled up the steeps of the Ilitnalaya will remember the great suppott they have received from the tough ness of the tufts of the bliatilmr. Specimens of the dried leaves are made up into bundles about 3 feet in length ; twine is made from it ; this, though rough, is strong and well fitted for ordi nary purposes. In the Himalaya the bhabhur holds a conspicuous place, from its extensive use and most abundant supply throughout the whole of the hills, affording a most economical substitute as an article of cordage, in lieu of others of a more costly and durable nature. All the jhula or rope bridges, which are erected over the large rivers where the sanga or wooden - planked bridges cannot be made, on all the principal thoroughfares of the Garhwal district, are con structed of this silky species of grass, the cables of which are of a considerable thickness. These rope bridges are a very safe means of communi cation over the large and rapid rivers intersecting different parts of the country, both for travellers and men with loads, and, where the footway and sides are properly laced with brushvirood, afford an easy e»ough roadway for loaded sheep, but neither ponies nor cattle can travel over them. This grass grows abundantly in all the ravines of the sides of the mountains, and is to be had only for the cutting, but it is not of a very durable nature, though pretty strong when fresh made into ropes. It lasts about a twelvemonth only, or a little more, and the people in charge of the rope bridges are constantly employed in repairing and annually renewing; the ropes and stays. The chinka, or temporary bridges of a single cable, upon which tmverses a seat in the shape of an ox-yoke, are also sometimes made of this gras.s. There are few of them useful for fodder.—(Y.A. p. 628; Royle's lull. Fib. p. 85; Trans. Agric. Soc. of India, viii. p. 272 ; Cat. Ex., 1851; Captain .11m1cIleston on the Fibres of Garhical. See Cyperacem.