ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. viii. 3-6 



cubits ^ long, having a plume which is useless and 

 weak, and no fruit whatever ; and these stalks the 

 plant sends up at many points. They use the roots 

 instead of wood, not only for burning, but also for 

 making a great variety of articles ; for the wood is 

 abundant and good. The ' papyrus' itself- is useful 

 for many purposes ; for they make boats from it, 

 and from the rind they weave sails mats a kind of 

 raiment coverlets ropes and many other things. 

 Most familiar to foreigners are the papyrus-rolls 

 made of it ; but above all the plant also is of very 

 great use in the way of food.^ For all the natives 

 chew the papyrus both raw boiled and roasted: they 

 swallow the juice and spit out the quid. Such is 

 the pap}Tus and such its uses. It grows also in 

 Syria about the lake in which grows also sweet- 

 fiag ; and Antigonus made of it the cables for his 

 ships. 



* The sari grows in the water in marshes and 

 f>lains, when the river has left them ; it has a hard 

 twisted root, and from it grow what they call the 

 saiia 5 ; these are about two cubits long and as 

 thick as a man's thumb; this stalk too is three- 

 cornered, like the papyrus, and has similar foliage. 

 This also they chew, spitting out the qui.d ; and 

 smiths use the root, for it makes excellent charcoal, 

 because the wood is hard. 



Mnasion is herbaceous, so that it has no use except 

 f<)r food. 



^ Se'/co ir^x^'s : T€Tpair^X«'* MSS. The two numbers seem 

 to have changed places {Bartels ap. Sch.). c/. Plin. I.e. 



* i.e. the stalk. 



» c/. Diod. 1. 80. * Plin. 13. 128. 



' t.e. stalks, like those of the papyrus. 



349 



