Mr. J. Hogg on the Byblus-Rush and the Byblus-Bok. 291 
years travellers have not found any of it in the Lower Nile and 
its adjacent waters; and thus have been confirmed these words 
of Isaiah (xix. 7), which allude to the Nile: “the paper-reeds 
(translated zrazrupos 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 cesaries”’ (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 Linnzeus 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 Byb/us, and of its many former 
uses, I may refer the reader to my work on the “ Classical 
Plants of Sicily,” originally published in Sir William Hooker’s 
‘ Botanical Journal,’ 1834. 
In the same plate of Speke’s sketch, that excellent animal- 
artist, Mr. Wolf, has given the figures of a fine Antelope, called 
Nzoé, 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 
