114. The COMMON RUSH (Juncus effusus) is known by its green, smooth, stiff, upright, leafless and pointed stem; having a loose bunch of small flowers at the side, and the seed-vessels blunt at the extremity.
Although the rush is generally considered by farmers a noxious weed in wet meadows and pastures, it is applicable to a variety of useful purposes; but particularly for making the wicks of rushlights. For this purpose it is usually cut a little after Midsummer; and is immediately afterwards thrown into water, and kept there, that it may not become dry, and that it may be the more easily peeled.
At first a person would find it no easy matter to divest a rush of its rind, so as to leave on each side, from top to bottom, one regular, narrow, and even rib, that may support the pith. But this, by practice, soon becomes familiar even to children.
When rushes are thus far prepared, they are spread on the grass to be bleached; and, afterwards, they are dried in the sun for use.
If only one rib of peel be left, instead of two, rushes will supply the place of cotton wicks for candles. In some parts of Hampshire the labouring people form wicks of this description; they dip them into scalding fat or grease, and use them in place of candles.
Rushes are sometimes manufactured into a slight kind of baskets. In the vicinity of Farnham, in Surrey, they are cut about Midsummer, and dried in the same manner as hay. After this they are formed into a kind of rick, and sheltered till the succeeding spring. They are then usefully employed, for bands or ties, in fastening hop-binds to the poles. In a fresh state they are sometimes made into brooms or besoms for blacksmiths, and other artisans working in metals.
115. BARBERRIES are a beautiful red and oblong-shaped fruit, produced, in small bunches, by a shrub (Berberris vulgaris) which grows wild in many parts of England. This shrub has somewhat oval, serrated, and pointed leaves; thorns growing three together upon the branches; and pendent clusters of yellow flowers.
So great is the acidity of this beautiful fruit that even birds refuse to eat it. In this respect it nearly approaches the tamarind. When boiled with sugar, however, it makes an agreeable preserve, rob, or jelly, according to the different modes of preparing it. Barberries are also used as a dry sweetmeat, and in sugarplums or comfits; are pickled with vinegar, and are used for the garnishing of dishes. They are likewise well calculated to allay heat and thirst in persons afflicted with fevers. The bark of this barberry shrub is said to have been administered with effect in cases of jaundice, and in some other complaints; and the inner bark, with the assistance of alum, dyes linen a fine yellow colour. The roots, but particularly their bark, are employed, in Poland, in the dyeing of leather.
A very singular circumstance has been stated respecting the barberry shrub; that corn, sown near it, proves abortive, the ears being in general destitute of grain; and that this influence is sometimes extended to a distance of three or four hundred yards across a field. A similar opinion, on this subject, prevails in France, as well as in England, but there is reason to suppose it is without foundation.