324? 



On Vessels made of the Papyrus. 



and in that of no other grass. The fly has not known that mo- 

 dern botanists no longer ranged the couch grass amongst 

 the wheat tribe, but, hke myself, it is most attached to the 

 Linnean names and system. The black fly deposits its eggs 

 in the larvae 'whe7i it can get at them ,• but a tithe of them are 

 not touched in this way. The maggots have all left the ears, 

 and are now in the ground, about half an inch deep, where 

 they will likely pass the winter in a pupa state. It is, there- 

 fore, to their destruction in their winter quarters, and not to 

 that of the eggs about the grain, as I formerly supposed, that 

 attention should be directed. In this quarter they have de- 

 stroyed from 3 to 5 bolls per acre. 



I am. Sir, &c. 



Archibald Gorrie. 

 Annat Gardens, Errol, Perthshire, 

 August 1. 1829. 



lRT. 



On Vessels made of the Papyrus. By John 

 Hogg, Esq. M.A. F.L.S., &c. 



Sir, 



^ It must always be an agreeable and ^interesting subject, to 

 prove that very ancient customs are still in use among the 

 same people of the world, as nothing can tend more to eluci- 

 date their history, and to explain difficult and obscure passages 

 in authors who have written on those countries and on their 

 inhabitants. 



In tracing coincidences of this sort, I have been induced to 

 make the following hasty observations, extracted from ancient 

 and modern authorities, in order show that vessels have, from 

 the earliest times, been formed of the papyrus, and that they 

 are at present in use in Egypt and Abyssinia. 



The papyrus, paper reed, or Egyptian reed, the Cyperus 

 Papyrus of Linnaeus, or Papyrus antiquorum of Sprengel, is 

 a plant so well known, that it will be superfluous to add here 

 any detailed account of it. It is the HaTrupoj of Theophrastus 

 (lib. iv. cap. 9.) and Dioscorides (lib. i. cap. 116.)? the Papy* 

 rus of Pliny : it is called ^u^Xog by Herodotus, Strabo, &c. ; 

 and Biblus by some Latin authors. In Scripture, Rush, and 

 Bulrush; in Hebrew, Goma; in Arabia, JEl-babir j and, in 

 Egypt, El'berdi, are its different appellations. 



We find mention of ships, and boats or canoes, being 

 made of the Papyrus in Exodus, Job, Isaiah, Herodotus, 

 Theophrastus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Lucan, Pliny, and 



