HERODOTUS AS A BOTANIST. 99 



from the early part of the reign of Rameses II, was at least 

 lAh inches in breadth, and other extinct ones of the time of 

 the XlXth dynasty are reported to be 17 and 18 inches 

 respectively. 



Papyrus as furnis]iin(j a model for artistic representation, — 

 The instances wherein the papyrus is copied as a device for 

 the columnar capitals in Egyptian architecture are too 

 numerous to be referred to here. The brief mention of the 

 fact that I noticed it in the shrines of Esneh, Edfou, and 

 Phila3 Avill suffice. Nor are the pictorial representations of it 

 less abundant in the mural paintings and hieroglyphics of the 

 ancient monuments. 



Herodotus on the Acacia. 



It is noteworthy to allude to the vessels used in Egypt for 

 the transport of merchandise, as Herodotus, Lib. II, c. 96, 

 speaks of them as made of the Acantha (Thorn), a tree from 

 which there exudes a gum. It is the modern Sont or Mimosa 

 (Acacia) Nilotica, groves of which are still found in Egypt, 

 as according to Strabo, Athenseus, and others cf old. This 

 was Pliny's /S/nna ^y/3/^j^m^a, called by A themeus " Acantha,' 

 and described by him as a round fruit on small stalks. 

 The Bedouin dragoman of the present day calls it sont, or 

 gum arabic, and there are two or three circumstances of 

 intei-est in connection with this tree, first, that the boats of 

 the Nile are still built with planks of the so^it, as in the days ot 

 Herodotus, second, that there is to a certain extent the same 

 arrangement in building the boats now as then, for according 

 to Rawlinson's Herodotus, the planks, arranged as Herodotus 

 states, like bricks, appear to have been tied to several long 

 stakes, fastened to them internally. (Something of the kind 

 is still done when they raise an extra bulwark above the 

 gunwale. Then again the sont tree, occurring as it does in 

 considerable numbers, presents quite a noticeable feature in 

 the landscape, with the vivid green of its foliage contrasting 

 with the darker hue of the palm trees. In its growth and 

 size as a rule the sont tree bears some resemblance to a 

 hawthorn, and the blossoms of the two trees, which in the 

 case of the sont are of a dusky Avhite, are of about the same 

 dimensions. But the surpassing interest of the sont tree 

 rests in the fact that the formidable prickles, an inch or more 

 in length, with which this shrub is armed, are commonly 

 supposed to have furnished the crown of thorns. Its fre- 



