NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 53 



pui'pose. It might also have been used as a hand-broom. [In 

 the Leyden Museum there are funeral wreaths of olive leaves, 

 of which Conservator Pleyte has kindly sent a specimen. — 

 A. and M.] 



Among the fruits of the Passalacqua collection there are also 

 juniper berries, which Kunth* derives from Juniperus phcenicea, L., 

 a determination the accuracy of which may be uncertain, since 

 several nearly related species occur in the neighbourmg lands 

 (for instance, Juniperus excelsa, M. B., in Asia Minor, on the 

 island of Thasos and in Abyssinia). Juniperus phcenicea, which is 

 distributed throughout the whole Mediterranean region, is absent, 

 like all conifers, in modern Egypt, and scarcely occurred in times of 

 antiquity wild or cultivated. It is therefore to be supposed that 

 the fruits, as also the coniferous woods occurring as parts of 

 Egyptian antiquities were imported in commerce from Syria or Asia 

 Minor. The fruits of Juniperus were used presumably (like our 

 juniper berries) in fumigation, &c. 



The fruits of a species of Balsamodendron, likewise in the Passa- 

 lacqua collection, were probably imported into Egypt from the coast 

 of the Red Sea. This suggests the naval expedition of the Queen 

 Misaphris (Hatasu), the natural-history collection of which is so 

 characteristically illustrated on the walls of the Temple of El-Der- 

 el-bachri.t 



The Sycamore {Ficus Sycomorus, L., Sycomoriis antiquorum, 

 Miq.) was, as is well-known, one of the most widely-distributed 

 trees in ancient Egypt, as it still is. On the religious worship, 

 which was paid to the sacred Sycamore tree of Nutpe, Hathor 

 or Isis, Ungerl has collected much information in speaking of 

 Balanites, which refers mostly to the former and not to the 

 latter tree. [In the ' Book of the Dead ' it is mentioned that the 

 soul receives the "crown of justification" under the sacred 

 Sycamore tree (compare the communication of Pleyte, p. 302.) 

 A. and M] . The largest part of the wooden objects contained 

 in the Museum are made of sycamore wood. The fruits of this 

 tree are likewise in the Passalacqua collection. They are smaller 

 than, and not so agreeable to the taste as, the common fig, but 

 are nevertheless eaten in Egypt. They are not smooth like the 

 common figs, but covered with woolly hairs, and they are not placed 

 singly on the leafy twigs, but in clusters directly on the old wood. 

 [That often-mentioned object which was considered to be an 

 orange by Kunth, § has been proved to be a sycamore fruit. That 

 botanist certainly gives this determination with a doubt, justified 

 by the historical accounts of the successful introduction of Citrus 

 Aurantium, L., into the Mediterranean region for the first time 



* ' Passalacqua, Catal.' p. 228. ' Ann. des, Sc. Nat.' viii. p. 423. 



+ Diimichen, ' Die Flotte einer agyptischen Konigin,' Taf. ii. xv., xvii., where 

 the transport of living trees in tubs is represented, which by the inscriptions 

 (p. 19) is denoted as " living incense trees, 31 specimens." 



+ *L.c. xxxviii. 23, p. 126, 127. 



§ ' Passalacqua Catal.' p. 228. ' Ann. des. Sc. Nat." viii. p. 421. 



