NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 49 



cultivated in Egypt. Cucumbers, melons and water-melons come to 

 market in a great number of varieties. Of all these fruits there 

 have been proved to have existed in ancient Egypt, only the date- 

 palm, sycamore, fig, vine, pomegranate and water-melon. The 

 majority of the species now cultivated were certainly unknown 

 to the ancient Egyptians. Among the old Egyptian plants which 

 have now vanished, the Papyrus and Nelumhium, are to be espe- 

 cially noted (to which might be added the Mimusoj^s, to be treated 

 of farther on). If all the plants recorded from ancient Egypt 

 had been indigenous, the number of these would reach 60-70 

 species. But it must be observed, that the authenticity of the 

 objects in the collections must be very cautiously inquired into. 

 Even in the collection of Passalacqua, on the genuineness of 

 which on the whole doubt can with difficulty be cast, the undoubt- 

 edly modern seeds of Nigella saliva, L., which still retain the 

 well-known aromatic taste, have been introduced by some accident. 

 The trade in false antiquities, which is in a flourishing state 

 throughout Egypt, had a particularly easy field of operations in 

 this class of objects. It is therefore very much to be regretted, 

 if, on suspicious discoveries of this nature, comprehensive conclu- 

 sions are arrived at as to the geographical distribution of plants, 

 as for instance the account of the maize by the French traveller 

 Eifaud.* 



We will now deal more particularly with some species of 

 plants. 



Of grains, we have in this museum, wheat {Triticum vulgar e^ 

 Vill.), with which a few barley grains are mixed. According to 

 Unger, f there were also cultivated in ancient Egypt Triticum 

 turgidum (still existing in Egypt) and spelt (T. Spelta, L., perhaps 

 also T. monococcum, L., both now no longer used). Unger has 

 ascertained from an examination of the bricks of the Dahschur 

 pyramid| that wheat and barley were cultivated on a most exten- 

 sive scale in ancient times since the straw of both s^Decies of 

 grain was used in the composition of the bricks. There were also 

 found in the bricks numerous grains of wheat, Triticum vidgare, 

 antiquorum, Heer. (which was found as well in the Swiss Lake- 

 dwellings). The barley was determined from the remains of the 

 spike to be Hordeum hexasticlwn, L. We may here call attention 

 to the fact that in no country in the world are wheat and barley 

 cultivated under so many varieties as in Abyssinia, although the 

 home of these grains, originally coming from Asia Minor, is 

 scarcely to be sought there. 



It is well known that the statement that grains of wheat taken 

 from ancient Egyptian tombs had been caused to germinate, was 

 for a time universally believed. This statement was long ago 



* Notwithstanding the detailed inventory printed in Bonafoiis ' Histoire 

 Naturelle du Mais,' Paris et Turin, lb36, p. 16, the possibility can scarcely be 

 got rid of, that the traveller was deceived by the inhabitants of Qurnnh, whose 

 help he employed in his excavations. 



f L. c, xxxviii. 23, p. 97, 98. 



+ L. c, liv. 1, p. 41. 



H 



