Dutch Rush

Newman (1844) writes about Equisetum hyemale:

" For this purpose it is imported, under the name of "Dutch Rush", in large
quantities, from Holland, where it is grown on the banks of canals and on the
sea ramparts, which are often bound together and consolidated by its strong
and matted roots. "

Since I am spending al my free time this summer visiting our our growing sites
of this species, I am specially interested in this passage and I would like to
understand possible subtleties in it that I miss while I'm not a native
speaker.

So, what kind of water body would an Englishman in the mid 19th C have had in
mind described by "canal"? Does it have an intuitive range of width? Is it
assciated with nautic traffic? Is it (sub-)urban or related to the country
side? Anything else? The Dutch language might have as many words for all kinds
of fresh water bodies as Eskimos have for snow, but regrettably we are not
taught these important words in English classes at school. Anyway, sofar I
have detected but a single site of rough horsetails on the bank of a canal
("kanaal"), but that one had not been constructed until 1858.

Similarly I would like to know what could be included within the term "sea
ramparts". Does it apply only to hard constructions like dykes? Or could also
be refered to sand dunes that are maintained, not to say actively managed, by
men?

Wim de Winter

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which had a name of winmail.dat]

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