272 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



work upon ; the shrub of course acquires a more 

 vigorous growth there than any where else ; it is 

 at the same time more extensively multiplied : it 

 grows however in all the other cultivated districts 

 of Egypt, and principally in the upper part. 



There is much reason to presume that the henna 

 of Egypt is the kupros of the ancient Greeks. 

 The descriptions, incomplete it is admitted, which 

 authors have given of it, and particularly the form 

 and the sweet perfume of its flowers which they 

 have celebrated, leave scarce any doubt respecting 

 the identity of these two plants*. Besides that, 

 the clusters of Cyprus, hotrus cypri, of the Song of 

 Songs *-f~, can be nothing else but the very clusters 

 of the flowers of the henna. This is at least the 

 opinion of the best commentators. Consult 

 Scheuchner's Sacred Physics, vol. i. p. 198 ; Ju- 

 nius, and a host of interpreters. 



It is not at all astonishing that a flower so deli- 

 cious should have furnished to oriental poesy agree- 

 able allusions and amorous comparisons. This fur- 

 nishes an answer to part of the 45th question of 



* The name of hipros is no longer in use among the modern 

 Greeks ; they give to the henna the corrupted denominations of 

 kene, kna, &c. The seamen of Provence, whose vessels were em- 

 ployed in the carriage of the powder of henna, called it quene. 



•j- Chap. i. v. 13, 14. Bofrtis cypri dilectus meus mihi, in vine is 

 Engaddi. 



4 Michaelis, 



