NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 21 



in a piece of brick given by Prof. Lepsius a fragment of a capsule 

 of Linum usitatissimum r this naturalist in all x^robability excludes 

 L. angustifolium only. He did not take into consideration L. humile, 

 Mill., which in this condition could scarcely be distinguished from 

 L. usitatissimum. Since there are old Egyptian flax-seeds in the 

 Museum of Bulaq (Mariette, Notice &c., p. 243), the doubt as to 

 the species cultivated in ancient Egypt may be soon solved. 



That flax was cultivated in great quantities and used in many 

 ways in ancient Egypt is known. Mummy-clothes are always of 

 linen,! and priests were compelled to wear linen garments. In 

 our Egyptian Museum there are two combs or heckles which have 

 been used in the preparation of flax, and between the teeth of 

 which the remains of threads were found, which on microscopic 

 examination turned out to be flax.| 



linger {I. c, p. 46) found a thread of flax in a brick of the 

 pyramid of Dahschur, by which the cultivation of this j)lant is 

 carried back to 4000 years before Christ. 



If the searching for flax-seeds gave no distinct result, the other 

 vegetable remains preserved in the Egyptian Museum offered a 

 subject of higher interest. These were chiefly from two sources. 

 A number of smaller seeds were brought home by the well-known 

 traveller. Von Minutoli, from that great expedition to which 

 Ehrenberg was naturalist. As Ehrenberg himself remarks m a 

 still extant letter, addressed on the 16th December, 1831, to 

 Joseph Passalacqua, then Director of the Egyptian collection, the 

 fresh apxDearance of these seeds, and in several cases their still 

 existing characteristic taste and smell, § make their ancient origin 

 highly suspicious. We will therefore, in this comLmunication, 

 leave the Minutoli seeds out of the question. 



Much more important, on the other hand, are the other vege- 

 table objects which the above-mentioned Passalacqua acquired, 

 mostly from the tombs of the Necropolis at Thebes, and indeed he 

 took a number from one tomb until then completely undisturbed, 

 which he opened on the 4th December, 1823. His collection was 

 exhibited in Paris in 1826, where Professor Kuntli, then staying 

 there, made the vegetable remains the object of a careful exami- 

 nation. || Ehrenberg has, in the letter above-mentioned, dated 1831, 

 subjected these i^lants to a criticism with the results of which we 

 can generally agree. Another examination of this important col- 

 lection is deskable, as the naturalist who lately occupied himself 

 most particularly with the vegetation of ancient Egypt, Franz 



* ' Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad Math.-Natursv. Classe.' liv. Bd, 1 Heft. 

 Abth., Juni, 1866, p. 47. 



+ Compare ' Ascherson in Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthropologischen 

 Gesellschaft,' 1875, p. 58. 



I Not hemj), as given in Passalacqua's 'Catalogue raisonne, etc.', p. 23. 

 § This is still strong in Cuminum Cyminum and Artemisia judaica. 



II J. Passalaequa, ' Catalogue rnisonne ethistorique desantiquites en Egypt.' 

 Paris, 18^6, p. 227-229. ' Examen botanique des fruits et des plantes,' par M. 

 Kunth. And C. Kunth, ' Recherches sur les plantes trouvees dans les tombeaux 

 egyptiens,' par M. Passalacqua. ' Ann. des sc. uat.' t. viii. (1820), p. 418—42:5. 



