[RUSH sb.1] Any plant of the genus Luzula, comprising grass-like herbs allied to the rushes, with clusters of chaffy brown flowers.
The name belongs properly to the sylvan species, as L. sylvatica (Great Wood-rush, also called wood-grass); the common species L. campestris (Field Wood-rush) is better called field-rush.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem., 213. Small hairy Wood-rush.
1857. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 299. L[uzula] sylvatica (Great Hairy Wood Rush).
1861. S. Thomson, Wild Fl., III. (ed. 4), 170. The broad-leaved wood-rush, with its hairy leaves, may be gathered in woods.
1889. Science-Gossip, XXV. 188/1. It [Luzula albida] is a very graceful woodrush of a peculiar shade of light green.