The same author states, also, that the Greeks give the name of “pistana” to the aquatic plant known to us as the “sagitta;”[2267] and he recommends that it should be stripped of its bark, and dried in a mild sun, between the ides of May[2268] and the end of October. He says, too, that it is usual to cut down to the root, throughout all the month of July, the variety of the gladiolus called “cypiros,” which is a marsh-plant also, and at the end of three days to dry it in the sun, until it turns white; but that care must be taken every day to carry it under cover before sunset, the night dews being very injurious to marsh plants when cut. CHAP. 69. (18.)—SIX VARIETIES OF THE RUSH: FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CYPIROS. Mago has likewise given similar recommendations as to the rush known to us as the “mariscus,”[2269] and which is so extensively employed for weaving mats. He says that it should be gathered in the month of June, up to the middle of July, and for drying it he gives the same precepts that have been already[2270] mentioned, in the appropriate place, when speaking of sedge. He describes a second kind, also, which I find is generally called the “marine” rush, and is known to the Greeks as the “oxyschœnos.”[2271] Generally speaking, there are three varieties of this last rush: the pointed rush, which is barren, and by the Greeks is called the male rush and the “oxys:”[2272] the female rush,[2273] which bears a black seed, and is called the “melancranis,”[2274] thicker and more bushy than the preceding one: and a third kind, called the “holoschœnus,”[2275] which is larger still. Of these varieties, the melancranis grows separately from the others, but the oxys and the holoschœnus will grow upon the self-same clod. The holoschœnus is the most useful for all kinds of basket-work, being of a particularly supple and fleshy nature; it bears a fruit, which resembles eggs attached to one another. The rush, again, which we have spoken of as the male rush,[2276] is reproduced from itself, the summit of it being bent down into the earth; the melancranis, however, is propagated from seed. Beyond this, the roots of all the varieties of the rush die every year. The rush is in general use for making kipes[2277] for sea-fishing, the more light and elegant kinds of basket-work, and the wicks of lamps, for which last purpose the pith is more particularly employed.[2278] In the vicinity of the maritime Alps, the rushes grow to such a vast size, that when split they measure nearly an inch in diameter; while in Egypt, on the other hand, they are so extremely fine, that the people there make sieves of them, for which, indeed, there can be nothing better.