TRIANDRIA. 33 



himself was writing, neither was that part all land in 

 Egypt which is now known to be so, (as, within the 

 district Sebennytisonly, all the paper was produced;) 

 for since his time, the Nile by its inundations has 

 caused mud to be accumulated, which has consoli- 

 dated into land: for, from the Island where the Pharos 

 stands, which is now joined to Alexandria only 

 by abridge, a vessel was a night and a day, with full 

 spread sails before the wind, making that distance. 

 Soon after, as Varro also relates, in the rivalry between 

 Ptolemy and Eumenes to establish their respective 

 libraries, Ptolemy interdicted the sale of paper $ and 

 the same Varro relates that the use of parchment was 

 found out at Pergamus 5 afterwards that use became 

 general, — on which the immortality of men depends. 

 " The Papyrus is produced in the marshes of 

 Egypt, or in the still parts of the Nile itself, or where 

 its inundation has made a temporary shallow, not ex- 

 ceeding two cubits in depth. The horizontal root is 

 of the thickness of a man's arm 5 the stem of the plant 

 is triangular, not more than ten cubits long, becoming 

 slender towards the top, when it terminates in a bushy 

 head like a Thyrsus ; it has no seed, nor is any part 

 of the bead made use of, except the flower, to make 

 chaplets for the statues of the Gods. The natives use 

 the roots as wood, not only for fuel, but also to make 

 vessels for domestic purposes. From the Papyrus it- 

 self, indeed, they make wicker boats; from the liber of 

 the plant they make sails and coverings, mats and 



VOL. I. C 



