Mr. J. Hogg on the ByhluS'Rush and the Byhlus-Bok. 391: 



years travellers have not found any of it in the Lower Nile and 

 its adjacent waters ; and thus have been confirmed these words 

 of I&aiah (xix. 7), which allude to the Nile : " the paper-reeds 

 (translated ird'jrvpo^ in the Septuagint) by the brooks. .....shall 



wither, be driven away, and be no more." So it was with great 

 pleasure that I recently read in Capt. Speke's ' Journal ' of its 

 vast abundance in the Upper or White Nile (the Bahr el Abiad) 

 and in the many lakes near the equator. It seems also com- 

 mon in the Island of Zanzibar on the east coast, and along some 

 of the rivers on the west side of Africa. 



Capt. Speke (at p. 223) has well represented this noble and 

 graceful rush, with its large panicle or head, in his plate of the 

 " Little Windermere Lake,^* where its forest-like presence along 

 the shores bears testimony to the accuracy of Cassiodorus's de- 

 scription of it (although hitherto considered by many scholars 

 as an imaginary account) in this passage: — "surgit Nilotica 

 sylva sine ramis, nemus sine frondibus, aquarum seges, paludum 

 pulchra csesaries^' (lib. xi. cap. 38). 



Signor Domenico Cyrillo published at Parma, in 1796, a 

 splendid monograph of this Papyrus plant, with some large 

 illustrations. When in Sicily, in May 1826, I saw it growing 

 in luxuriance (but, I concluded, only naturalized) in the fountain 

 of Cyane (La Pisma), which flows into the river Anapus to the 

 south-west of Syracuse ; and I understand it still flourishes in 

 the same clear water. I made inquiry for it in Calabria, where, 

 according to Linnaeus and Persoon, it was mentioned as grow- 

 ing ; but I could not ascertain the truth of its existence in that 

 province. Some old authorities also related that it was indige- 

 nous in Syria ; and I find that this has lately been confirmed by 

 Dr. Hooker, who observed it a short time ago in the marshes 

 and along the margins of the Lake Samachonitis, now Bahr el 

 Huleh. 



For a fuller account of the Byblus, and of its many former 

 uses, I may refer the reader to my work on the " Classical 

 Plants of Sicily," originally published in Sir WiUiam Hooker's 

 'BotanicalJournal/ 1834. 



In the same plate of Speke^s sketch, that excellent animal- 

 artist, Mr. Wolf, has given the figures of a fine Antelope, called 

 Nsoe, or " Water-Bok." The male of this species bears a pair 

 of noble, long, twisted horns; and he is said to be "closely allied 

 to a Water-bok found by Dr. Livingstone on the Ngami Lake." 

 It is an aquatic species ; and, from living in the moist element, 

 the hair of its coat is " long, and of such excellent quality that 

 the natives prize it for wearing almost more than any other of 

 the Antelope tribe." Its chief food being the long filaments of 



