BULRUSH. 



CYPERACE^E. Typlia latlfolia. 



)ELSIUS supposes that the word translated &quot;bulrush&quot; in the 

 Scriptures signifies papyrus or paper-reed, and that the 

 u paper-reed&quot; of Isaiah xix. 7 is in the original a term 

 for reeds generally. His supposition is sustained by a 

 host of authorities and circumstances. Hasselquist, the Oriental 

 botanist, describes two varieties of reed growing near the Nile. 

 &quot;One of them has scarcely any branches, but numerous leaves, 

 which are narrow, smooth, channelled on the upper surface, 

 and the plant is about eleven feet high. The Egyptians make 

 ropes of the leaves. They make floats of this reed, which 

 they use when they fish with nets. The other sort is of great 

 consequence. It is a small reed, about two or three feet high, 

 full-branched, with short, sharp, lancet-shaped leaves. The 

 roots, which are as thick as the stem, creep and mat them 

 selves together to a considerable distance. The plant seems 

 useless in ordinary life ; but to it is the very soil of Egypt 

 owing; for the matted roots have stopped the earth which 

 floated in the water, and formed out of the sea a country that 

 is habitable.&quot; 



It is very probable that the little ark made for the infant 

 Moses by his mother was constructed of the reeds of this or a 

 similar plant, tied together by the long leaves which each stem 



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