AND LOWER EGYPT. $IJ 



ployed it, for the most part, in making cases for 

 mummies : its fruit does not hang, like that of 

 other trees, along the boughs and branches, and 

 at their extremity ; it is fastened to the trunk 

 itself and to the larger stems. It is a species of 

 fig very like the common one, but more insipid. 

 The natives eat it with pleasure; it is considered 

 a£ refreshing, and calculated to quench thirst. 



The schishme is a scarcer shrub, and one which 

 is only cultivated as a curiosity in some of the 

 gardens of Rossetta, It bears leguminous flowers 

 of a deep yellow, and oblong leaves terminating 

 in a point. Long pods, bent in the form of a 

 scythe, succeed the flowers; these contain flat- 

 tened seeds, shaped like a heart, the middle of 

 which is gray, and surrounded with a large border, 

 jutting out and of a brown colour. The Egyp- 

 tians consider these seeds as a specific against 

 ophthalmy, a disease so prevalent in their coun- 

 try. They pound them, and reduce them to a 

 yellow powder, which is blown into the eyes 

 either pure or mixed with pulverised sugar. Al- 

 though the schishme thrives very well in the cool 

 and shaded places of the fields of Rossetta, the 

 seed which it produces there is not esteemed; 

 that is preferred which is brought from Nubia, 

 where probably this shrub is indigenous. 



I saw 



