In order to determine what particular kinds of reed-like plants are intended in these several pas sages, the preferable mode is probably first to ascertain the plants to which the above names were applied by the Greeks and Romans, and particularly those which are indigenous in Syria and Egypt. Dioscorides describes the different kinds in his chapter zrepi. KaNciitou (i. 114). 1. lici Naktog vaar6s, or the Arzindo farcta, of which arrows are made (Arrendo arenaria ?) 2. The female, of which reed pipes were made (A. do nax ?) 3. Hollow, with frequent knots, fitted for writing, probably a species of Saccharum. 4. Thick and hollow, growing in rivers, which is called (Amax, and also Cypria (Amend° donax). 5. Phragnzites (Anemia Phraginites), slender, light coloured, and \veil-known. 6. The reed called Phleos (Arzendo ampeloa'esmas (Flora .Areapal. t. xii.) These are all described (i.e.) im mediately before the Papyrus, while xciNap.os dpco uartx6s is described in a different part of the book, namely, in ch. 17, along with spices and perfumes. The Arabs describe the different kinds of reed under the head of _Kush, or Eiasub, of which they give Kalanzus as the synonymous Greek term. Under the head of Kussub, both the Bamboo and the Arundo are included as varieties, while Kusb-al-Sukr is the sugar-cane, or Saccharum afficinarzem, and Kusb-el-Zurzreh ap pears to be the Calanues aromaticus [KANEtt sosm]. All these were, no doubt, partially known to the ancients. Pliny mentions what must have been the Bamboo, as to be seen of a large size in temples.
From the contcxt of the several passages of Scripture in which Kaneh is mentioned, it is evi dent that it was a plant growing in water ; and we have seen from the meaning of the word in other languages that it must have been applied to one of the true reeds ; as, for instance, Anendo 2Egyptiaca (perhaps only a variety of A. a'onax), mentioned
by M. Bove as growing on the banks of the Nile ; or it may have been the Arundo isiaca of Delile, which is closely allied to A. Phragmites, the Canna and Canne of the south of Europe, which has been already mentioned under AGMON.
In the N. T. KciXaktos seems to be applied chiefly to plants growing in dry and even barren situa tions, as in Luke vii. 24. To such passages, some of the species of reed-like grasses, with slender stems and light flocculent inflorescence, formerly referred to Saccharzenz, but now separated as dis tinct genera, are well suitcd ; as, for instance, Inz perata cylindzica (Arzendo epzgeios, Forsk.), the hulfeh of the Arabs ; which is found in such situa tions, as by Desfontaines in the north of Africa, by Delile in Lower Egypt, by Forskal near Cairo and Rosetta. Bove mentions that near Mount Sinai, Dans les deserts qui environnent ces montagnes, j'ai trouve plusieurs Saccharum,' etc. In India, the natives employ the culm of different species of this genus for making their reed-pens and arrows.
Hence, as has already been suggested by Rosen miiller, the noun 'Candi ought to be restrictcd to reeds, or reed-like grasses, while Apnan may indi cate the more slender and delicate grasses or sedges growing in wet situations, but which are still tough enough to be made into ropcs.—J. F. R.