34 TKIANDRIA. 



cordage, and also wearing apparel. They chew tne 

 root also, crude or soddened, however, swallowing 

 only the juice. 



"The Papyras is also produced in Syria, on the 

 borders of the same lake with the sweet-scented reed ; 

 nor had King Antigonus any other cordage for his 

 naval purposes than what he procured from thence 

 before the introduction of the Spanish broom : lately it 

 has been ascertained that the Papyrus is found grow- 

 ing in the Euphrates about Babylon, and the natives 

 make the same use of it for paper ; and even now the 

 Parthians are fond of weaving letters in their clothes.' 1 

 The paper is prepared from the plant by dividing the 

 pellicles into laminse with a pointed instrument, at the 

 same time preserving the strips as wide as possible. 1 " 



From the inner rind of the bark of the middle 

 part of the stem, the Egyptians appear to have made 

 their paper. The lamincs or layers were separated 

 with an instrument made for that purpose: these 

 strips, which were usually about two inches and a half 



h " Et tamen sdhuc malunt Parthi vestibus litems intexere." 

 This fact may probably refer to some ancient custom of the 

 Pjrthians to manufacture the clothes they wore of the sams 

 materials as that on which they were accustomed to write, 

 and the cloth so manufactured may have served for either pur- 

 pose; and when this practice was no longer in use, they may 

 have still continued to ornament their dress with worked letters 

 instead of written characters. 



i Pliny Be gummi gcneribus, et Papyro>. Leber xiii. Cap. il» 



