NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 61 



and south as far as Natal/'' Among the plants of the Beiim 

 Egyptian Museum there is another species of Cyperus [Cyperus 

 esculentus, L.). .The tuberous root-stocks of this plant, which is 

 not at all rarely cultivated in Egypt at the present day under the 

 name of Hahb-el-Asis, and in cultivation scarcely ever flowers, are 

 a savoury food ; they contain fatty oil and sugar. The tubers in 

 the Museum, like those at present cultivated in Egypt, are as a 

 rule rounder and smaller than those of the plant cultivated in 

 the botanic gardens of Germany, which has usually long tubers 

 and may possibly belong to a variety. They resemble much 

 more the tubers of the form of Cyperus esculentus frequently grow- 

 ing wild in the Mediterranean region and also in Egypt, which has 

 been described as a separate species under the names of Cyperus 

 aureus, Ten., and Cyperus melanorrliizus, Del. 



The cultivation of the date-palm [Fhoeniv dactylifera, L.) was 

 presumably as widely carried on in ancient times as now. The 

 region of the cultivation of this palm, the true home of which is 

 unknown, stretches over the whole of North Africa and a part of 

 Asia Minor. Whether a small form occurring on Mount Sinai 

 is a stray w41d form or originally indigenous is difficult to ascer- 

 tain — the h'uits are esculent. Among the findings in the tombs 

 the date occurs abundantly. 



There occur no less numerously in the tombs the fruits of 

 another palm [Hyphmne thebaica, Mart.), on the occurrence of 

 which in Egypt the old writers have given us exhaustive informa- 

 tion. These fruits, which are of considerable size, have the 

 peculiarity that of the three i^arts of which palm-fruits consist, two 

 or three are very often developed, while in most palm-fruits, e. g., 

 date, cocoa-nut, only one is developed. The rather thin, tender 

 outer layer of the fruit has a sweet taste hke gmgerbread, and is 

 chewed by the natives. The stony shell lying under this layer 

 encloses the hard kernel, the albummous body of which is hollow 

 within. The Doum Palm is distributed over most parts of Africa ; 

 it is found both in Guinea and South Africa. Different species of 

 Hyphmne have been determined from different parts of Africa, but 

 the late Dr. Seemann, who worked a great deal at the palms, after 

 examining a great quantity of material, expressed the opinion that 

 the differences were not real. 



A third palm-fruit, present in the Passalacqua collection, and 

 found also in old Egyptian tombs, t remained for a long time 

 doubtful as to its origin. Kunth:]: named it Areca PassalacqucB, 

 and it certainly has a striking characteristic in the possession of 

 ruminated albumen, i. e., with the mass of albumen traversed by 

 brown wrinkles, as in the East Indian genus Areca, but is distin- 



* Compare Thiselton Dyer in ' Gardener's Chronicle.' 1875, i. p. 78, trans- 

 lated in the ' Monats-schrift des Vereins zur Beforderung des Gartenbaues,' 

 1876, p. 17-23. 



+ Unger {loc. cit. xxxviii. 23, p. 107) obtained it from tombs at Thebes. It 

 is also preserved in the Egyptian Museum at Florence, according to the speci- 

 mens sent to us by Dr. Levier. 



I 'Passalacqua Cutal.' p. 228. 'Ann. Sc. Nat.' viii. p. 420. 



