A brief description of the uses of this plant, as given in the works of the ancients, is thus summed up by Parkinson in his Herbal, p. 12°7 : The plant, say the ancients, is sweete, and used by the Egyptians, before that bread of corne was known unto them, for their food, and in their time was chawed, and the sweetnesse sucked forth, the rest being spit out ; the roote serveth them not only for fewell to burne, but to make many sorts of vessels to use, for it yielded much matter for the purpose. Papyrus ipse (say they), that is the stalke, is profitable to many uses, A" to make ships, and of the barke to weave, and make sailes, mats, carpets, some kinds of garments, and ropes also.' The construction of papyrus boats is men tioned by Theophrastus ; so Pliny (Hist. Nat. vi. 24), Papyraceis navibus annamentisque Nili ; ' and again (vii. 56), Naves primum repertas in 'Egypt° in Nilo ex papyro.' Plutarch, as quoted by Rosenmilller, says, Isis circumnavigated the marshes in a papyrus wherry for the purpose of collecting the pieces of Osiris's body. From Heliodorus's account it appears that the Ethio pians made use of similar boats ; for he relates that the Ethiopians passed in reed wherries over the Astaboras ; and he adds that these reed wherries were swift sailing, being made of a light material, and not capable of carrying more than two or three men.' Bruce relates that a similar
kind of boat was made in Abyssinia even in his time, having a kcel of acacia wood, to which the papyrus plants, first sewed together, are fastened, being gathered up before and behind, and the ends of the plants thus tied together. Representations of some Egyptian boats are given in the Pictorial Bible (ii. p. 135); where the editor remarks that when a boat is described as being of reeds, or rushes, orpapyrus (as in Egypt), a covering of skin or bitumen is to be nnderstood. That the „Papyrus was employed for making paper is also well known, and Wilkinson mentions that from ancient paper being found at Thebes and elsewhere, it is evident that this application of it was much anterior to the time of Alexander the Great. —J. F . R.