factory (in the suburbs, of Canton) I found the following scarce 
grasses . . . Andropogon Schoenanthus" and later on in his 
Flora Sinensis (vol. ii. p. 364) " Andropogon LSchoeHuiithus." 
This by itself is conclusive evidence for the assumption that the 
specimen named « Schoenanthus " in Linnaeus's herbarium is 
Osbeck's, and therefore of Chinese, not Indian, origin. More- 
< n <' r - -)i"'- l ; - ! ». -Jackson pointed out to me that a specimen named 
" A. Schoenanthus'" appears already in a manuscript catalogue of 
Linnaeus's herbarium drawn up about 1754. This date includes 
Osbeck's collection whilst it excludes all contributions of Indian 
plants, which Linnaeus may have received, with the exception of 
the small set wnich Olaf Toren sent him from the west coast of 
the peninsula in 1751. Linnaeus may, of course, have had 
Osbeck's specimen in his mind, when adding " India," using that 
term in a very vague way as often was the case in those times. 
But, however that may be, the determination of Osbeck's specimen 
as A. Schoenanthus and its presence under that name in the 
Linnaean herbarium only proves that Linnaeus also made mis- 
takes. The supposition that the sheet written up by Linna.-us as 
"Schoenanthus" was really intended to serve as the "type" of 
his A. Schoenanthus is in the circumstances untenable, and it 
is therefore only reasonable that the name Schoenanthus be 
restored to the species which for 2,000 years had been known 
by it. 
History of " Herba Schoenanthi."— When in 1881 Emil 
■Brugsch Bey discovered the tomb of Deir-el-Bahari in the 
necropolis of Thebes, the secret vault which contained the coffins 
of so many illustrious kings also yielded a remarkable profusion 
of botanical treasures : funeral wreaths which the kings of the 
20th or 2.1m l>xna,iy Imv.mi l.JiH) did J.OIM) B.C.) had de- 
posited on the sarcophagi of their predecessors, offerings of fruits, 
lichens, bundles of a grass (Desmostachya bipinnata) and quanti- 
ties of the straw of another grass which Professor Schweiuiuith 
recognised as " Gymnanthelia lanigera " (a rarely used synonym 
of C. Schoenanthus). Some of the inflorescences were still in 
excellent condition. Even " the odour of the grass was preserved 
to a certain extent in the mixture of the offering." So early 
begins the history of the grass. Then the grass was found under 
similiar conditions in the tombs of the cemetery of Hawarat in 
the Fay um. a- • bipinnata. Accord- 
ing to Professor Flinders Petrie some of the tombs were probably} 
of the 20th, 26th and 30th Dynasties, but most were Ptokinaie. 
According to Loret§ the grass is also frequently mentioned in 
hieroglyphic perfumery receipts as 'Aethiopian cane,' 'rush of 
the Sudan,' and ' Cvperus of the West,' Whether all of tie -.< names 
actually refer to C. Schoenanthus or not, the finds of Deir-,1- 
Hahuri and Ha warn afford in anv ease indisputable proof of the 
nigh place which was assigned to the grass 3,000 year- ago. 
To-day C. Schoenanthus does not grow in the neighbourhood of 
old Thebes or in the Fayum ; it has in fact, with one exception, 
Newberry in Flinders Petrie, Hawara, Biahmu and Arainoe (1889), p. a3. 
Flinders Petrie, I.e., p. 8. 
Loret, Flore Pharaonique, (1887), p. 11. 
