FLAGS. 



(Water- Weeds.) 



FLUYIALES. Cyperus Esculent us, or 



Zostera Marina . 



appears that the word &quot;flags&quot; was applied to several water- 

 plants, or fluviales ; and the two varieties named above 

 are the most interesting and perhaps the nearest to the 

 Scripture kinds. Two different Hebrew words have been 

 translated &quot; flags :&quot; hence there is some room for a variance 

 of meaning to the word as it occurs in our English version. 

 Moreover, in Gen. xli. 2, 18, and Job viii. 11, the word trim. 

 is first rendered &quot;meadows&quot; and then &quot;flags,&quot; and the word, 

 being of Egyptian origin, probably refers to any grassy weed 

 or flag in marshy land or pasture. It is supposed that the 

 cyperw esculentus, a flag bearing an edible root containing 

 both oil and starch and which was eaten formerly as a kind of 

 sweetmeat, represents the plant referred to in the passages 

 mentioned. The other word, siiph, occurring in Ex. ii. 3, 5, 

 is probably only a general name for sea-weeds. Hence the 

 Ked Sea was called the Sea of Suph, or Sea of Weeds, from 

 the number which grew around it. Great quantities of this 

 weed float upon the water; and it is supposed to have suggested 

 the name &quot;red&quot; for the sea, from the color of the leaves and 



