22 NOTICES or BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 



linger,* did not see it, and his statements might be corrected in 

 many points by the result. 



The sources from which we have gained our knowledge ol the 

 vegetation of ancient Egypt are the following :— 



(1.) By far the most important and most authentic evidence are 

 tlie pieces' of plants which have been found, for the most part, in a 

 good state in old Egyptian tombs, and have been preserved in the 

 ditierent museums. ' Besides the museum here, the collections at 

 Vienna, Leyden, Paris, London, Turm, Florence andBulaq,! near 

 Cau-o, possess more or less numerous objects of this kind, which 

 mostly still want scientific exammation. 



(2*.) It was a happy thought of linger to examine for 

 organic fragments the uiiburned clay-bricks, of which many still 

 well-preserved monumental buildings — e. g., several pyramids of 

 the group of Dahschiir— are built. Treated with water these bricks 

 completely dissolve, and the straw intentionally used in their 

 manufacture, as well as many vegetable remains accidentally 

 sticking in the mass, are set free. New facts as to the cultivated 

 plants °of ancient Egj^t are certainly only exceptionally to be 

 gained in this way, since most found are only remains of marsh 

 plants and weeds, linger has, however, in this way \ discovered 

 the fact of the cultivation oi Ercu/rostis ahijsdnica, Lk., in ancient 

 Egypt, which has not yet been otherwise proved. 



\d.) Many discoveries prove the existence of the manufacture 

 fi-om vegetable substances of textile fabrics, basket-work and 

 wooden objects of many kinds. 



(4.) The numerous figures of plants found on old Egyptian 

 monuments give us also much information about the plants 

 employed in the Hfe of the ancient" Egyptians for sacred or 

 profane purposes. Although in some cases the chacteristics have 

 been happily caught in these figures, the illustrations of plants are 

 on the whole far inferior to those of animals, of which, for instance, 

 the fishes of the Bed Sea, mostly determined as to genus and 

 species by Prof. Doenitz, have been rendered with much truth in 

 El-Der-ei-bachri.§ linger has expended much labour on the 



* F. Unger. ' Botauische streifziige auf dem Gebiete der Culturgeschichte.' 

 IV, ' Die PHanzen des alten Aegyptens.' (Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen 

 Akademie d.'f Wissonschaften in Wien, Math. Xaturw. Clnsse. xxxviii. Bd., 

 No. 23 (4 Nov. Iy59), \). 0!) — 140, mit ix Tafeln). — V. ' Inbalt eiues altagyptis- 

 cben Ziegels an organischen Koipein' [I.e. xlv. Bd. 1 Heft, Jan, 1862), 2 Abth. 

 p. 75 — yn, rait 1 Tafel.) — VII. ' Ein Ziegel der Dashur-Pyraniide in Aegypten 

 nach seinem Inhalte an organischen Einschliissen. {I. e. liv. Bd. 1 Heft, Juni, 

 lH(jO, 1 .\lith.), p. ;}3 — 02. — VIII. 'Die organischen Einschliisse eines Ziegels 

 der aUvn .Judenstadt Ramses in Aegypten. {I. c. Iv. Bd. 1 Heft, Jan. 1867, 

 1 Abth., p. IDH— 205). 



+ I'rof. Braun received from Prof. Eadlkofer, in Munich, a very valuable 

 letter on the two last-named oUections. A list of the old Egyptian vegetable 

 remains to be found in Florence was sent to the editors by Dr. Stern, Speci- 

 mens of a number of the objects preserved there have been sent by the kind- 

 ness of their friend Dr. E. Levier. 



♦ L. c. liv. 1, p. 42 (Dahschur;, Iv. 1, p. 202 (Ramses). 



§ • Dumichen, Die Flotte einer agyjitlscheu Ivouigiu,' Ltipsic, l&(Jb. 

 Taf. XX,— ixiv. p. 22, 



