Plin. "Fruit Leaf of "Growing in the Nile:" "one of the wild plants, which abound so plentifully in Egypt.' Athen. iii. p. 72. Strabo, xvii. p. 550. "Grows some distance from the Nile." like a medlar, without husk or kernel. the Cyperus. No other use but for food." Plin. Some suppose it the Cyperus esculentus, which is very doubtful. "Also eaten in Egypt. Few leaves; large root. Plin. Theophrastus says, it has a long root, gathered at the time of the inundation, and used for crowning the altars. Lib. i. c. 1. 11. "These two have spreading and numerous roots; but no leaf, nor anything above the ground.' Plin. Lettuce? 21 21 15 29 Etum 21 15 "Leaves like a crocus." Plin. The Edthbáh is of the order Syngenesia, and the flower is of a purplish colour. Dioscorides describes its flower with a white circuit "Used in Egypt for chaplets: the leaves like ivy: is Aphace 21 15 } Corchorus olitorius. (Arab. Melokhéëh.) Leontodon Taraxacum. "Eaten at Alexandria." Plin. "Flowers all the winter and spring, till the sum- "The Egyptians grow the Acinos for making chap- "Never flowers." Plin. Some editions of Pliny "Grows about the Nile in marshes, and is eaten. "Eaten by other people, as by the Egyptians.' "Gods crowned with it; a custom particularly observed by Ptolemy, King of Egypt.' Plin. "Grown in gardens in Egypt, for making chaplets.' Plin. "Coming from the garden lotus, from whose seed, ("Rhus leaves like myrtle, used for dressing "Mostly produced in Egypt." Plin. "About Elephantina. Plin. "Only in Egypt during the inundation of the Nile." “Homer attributes the glory of herbs to Egypt. "The Egyptians believe that if, on the 27th day of Thiatis (Thoth), which answers nearly to our The trees of ancient Egypt represented on the monuments are the date, dôm, sycamore, pomegranate, persea, tamarisk, and Periploca Secamone; and the fruit, seeds, or leaves of the nebk, vine, fig, olive, Mokkayt (Cordia Myxa), Kharoob or locust-tree, palma Christi or cici, Sont or acanthus, bay, and Egleeg or balanites, have been found in the tombs of Thebes; as well as of the Areca, Tamarind, Myrobalanus, and others, which are the produce either of India, or the interior of Africa. And though these last are not the actual productions of Egypt, they are interesting, as they show the constant intercourse maintained with those distant countries. One instance has been met with of the pine-apple, in glazed pottery. The sculptures also represent various flowers, some of which may be recognized, while others are less clearly defined, and might puzzle the most expert botanist. Figs. 1 to 6, inclusive, from the tomb of Remeses III. Little attention is paid by the inhabitants of modern Egypt to the cultivation of plants, beyond those used for the purpose of food, or to the growth of trees, excepting the palm, large groves of which are met with in every part of the country; and if the statement of Strabo be true, that "in all (Lower) Egypt the palm was sterile, or bore an uneatable fruit, though of excellent quality in the Thebaïd," this tree is now cultivated with more success in Lower Egypt than in former times, some of the best quality of dates being produced there, particularly at Korayn, to the east of the Delta, where the kind called A ́maree is superior to any produced to the north of Nubia. Few timber trees are reared in these days either in Upper or Lower Egypt. Some sycamores, whose wood is required for water wheels and other purposes; a few groups of Athuls, or Oriental tamarisks, used for tools and other implements requiring a compact wood; and two or three groves of Sont, or Mimosa Nilotica, valuable for its hard wood, and for its pods used in tanning, are nearly all that the modern inhabitants retain of the many trees grown by their predecessors. But their thriving condition, as that of the mulberry-trees (planted for the silkworms), which form, with the Mimosa Lebbek, some shady avenues in the vicinity of Cairo, and of the Cassia fistula (bearing its dense mass of blossoms in the gardens of the metropolis), shows that it is not the soil, but the industry of the people, which is wanting to encourage the growth of trees. The Egleeg, or balanites (the supposed Persea), no longer thrives in the valley of the Nile; many other trees are rare, or altogether unknown; and the extensive groves of Acanthus, or Sont, are rather tolerated than encouraged, as the descendants of the trees planted in olden times near the edge of the cultivated land. The thickets of Acanthus, alluded to by Strabo, still grow above Memphis, at the base of the low Libyan hills in going from the Nile to Abydus, you ride through the grove of Acacia, once sacred to Apollo, and see the rising Nile traversing it by a canal, as when the geographer visited that city, even then reduced to the condition of a small village: and groves of the same tree may here and there be traced in other parts of the Thebaïd, from which it obtained the name of the Thebaïc thorn. Above the cataracts, the Sont grew in profusion a few years ago upon the banks of the Nile, enabling the poor Nubians to |