168 CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. [JuUC, 



passage in Isaiali^ where a woe is denounced against the " land 

 shadowing with wings^ which is beyond the rivers of Europe, that 

 sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon 

 the waters, etc/' In the ' Phytologist,' n. s. vol. i. p. 335, there 

 is an extract from the ' Journal of Botany and Kew Miscellany,' 

 in which it is shown that in the upper regions of equinoctial 

 America the inhabitants use the Rush or Bulrush {Scirpus la- 

 custris) in the place of wood, iron, canvas, etc. The Indians 

 about the lake Titicaca use no other material in the construction 

 of their tiny ships. 



What more expressive figure can be imagined than that of 

 bending the head like a Bulrush, as the hypocrites did. The 

 Reed-mace or Cat's-tail, Typha latifolia or T. angustifolia, is 

 called by some Bulrush ; but this never bends its head, and it 

 is not so suitable for plaiting as the Scirpus is. It is quite erect, 

 and of a brittle structure. 



The Bulrush, the Beed-mace, the Arundo, and several species 

 of Juncus (Rush), also a representative of the Sweet-flag [Acorus 

 Calamus), are plants of Palestine."^ Our Flag-plants, viz. Iris 

 foetidissima and Gladiolus communis, are common both to England 

 and Palestine. The latter is but a recent discovery in Britain, 

 but it apparently had existed in the New Forest for centuries 

 before it was observed. 



Many British Grasses are found in Palestine. Hasselquist 

 names the following, viz. : — Agrostis Spica-venti, Poa annua, P. 

 hulbosa, and P. rigida, Dactylis glomerata, Cynosurus echinatus, 

 Bromus madritensis, B. sterilis, and B. tectorum, Avena fatua. La- 

 gurus ovata, and Hordeum murinum. The late lamented Dr. 

 Bromfield states, in his Letters from the East (a privately printed 

 book), that Cynodon dactylon is one of the commonest Grasses on 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, about Alexandria, and in other 

 parts of the East. 



The Ash-tree has been already named as one of the ornamental 

 and useful trees of Palestine. To this may be added the Lime 

 {Tilia, called Teil in Isaiah), the common Elm of England [Ulmus 

 campestris), the Poplar {Populus alba), and the Alder {Betula 

 Alnus). It is true that all these trees are not expressly men- 

 tioned in the Bible, but several objects were in these early, as 

 also in later times, comprehended under one name. 



* Juncus effiisus is given by Lady Calcott as the Rush of Palestine, a poor repre- 

 senta.tive. 



