Meteorological Constitution of the Earth. 319 



Dioscorides, is evidently that which now bear that name. 

 Theophrastus adds even that it grows in Syria, Cilicia, and 

 Torone in Chalcidia, still farther to the north than Egypt ; 

 and even there it has been sought for in vain by recent 

 botanists. Nelumbium speciosum^ however, has been found by 

 Thunberg in Japan, and by Fisher at the mouth of the Volga, 

 in chmates much colder than that of Egypt. The plant from 

 Japan is evidently the same ; and although Fisher considers 

 the plant from the Volga as different, and calls it Nelumbium 

 Caspicum, yet Decandolle considers it only as a variety. 



It thus appears that the temperature of Egypt, like that of 

 Palestine, has not undergone changes since the time of the an- 

 cients, a result which might have been expected from the two 

 countries being so near to each other. 



The moisture also does not seem to be different. The an- 

 cients speak much about the scarcity of rain in Egypt. It is 

 the same now ; from the month of May till November 1799, not 

 a drop of rain fell at Cairo, according to the French observer, 

 and in the other months it rained only three times. Herodotus 

 mentions that the Nile begins to increase at the summer solstice 

 In the Description de VEgypte, it is mentioned that above 

 the cataracts the water is observed to rise at the summer sol- 

 stice, and at Cairo in the first days of July. It results from 

 these observations that the rainy season formerly began in the 

 tropical part of Africa at the same time as it does now. 



The ancients knew too little about the countries within the 

 tropics to enable us, from their observations, to derive any suf- 

 ficient proof of the stability of their climate. There occurs in 

 their writings, however, nothing which could prove a change, 

 except the report that these countries were uninhabitable on 

 account of the heat, which those authors only mention who had 

 no information respecting these lands. Among the products 

 of India, Theophrastus, Pliny, and Diodorus Siculus mention 

 Bambusa arundinacea^ Amomum cardamomum^ Laurus cinna- 

 momum^Ficus Indica, Gossipium arhoreum^ Oriza saiiva. Piper 

 nigrum^ besides many others, which being less certain, have 

 been palsed over. Theophrastus says, that the vine grows only 

 in the mountainous parts of India, and that in general India 

 hardly produces any of those plants which grow in Greece. Jt 



