o 



12 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 389. 



ably be grown with profit in this country. By a loose-in- 

 terpretation of this law this free-seed dispensation expanded 

 until the mails were annually burdened with packages by 

 the million, weighing in the aggregate hundreds of tons, 

 and sufficient to plant something like a hundred thousand 

 acres of flower and kitchen garden. Not only were seeds 

 of the commonest vegetable and flowering plants sent 

 out in this way, but in many cases worthless seeds were 

 used which had been paid for at extravagant prices. Just 

 before he resigned his position as Attorney-General, Mr. 

 Olney delivered an opinion to the effect that the phrase 

 "new and valuable seeds, rare and uncommon to the 

 country," cannot be construed to mean the ordinary mar- 

 ket varieties of Turnips and Cabbages, or of China Asters 

 and Nasturtiums. Under this ruling the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture is prohibited from purchasing any seed which is 

 not plainly included in the original intent of the law. Of 

 course, the expenditure of this money by the Seed Division 

 has been denounced year after year by every intelligent 

 organ of public opinion in the country as a worse than 

 useless extravagance, and if Mr. Olney 's opinion is correct, 

 it has been illegal also. In spite of the fact that the aboli- 

 tion of this Seed Bureau will save the country $200,000 a 

 year, an effort will be made by certain Congressmen to 

 reorganize it by special enactment and set it running again. 

 What Congress should do is to prohibit entirely the p'ur- 

 chase of seeds of any kmd for general distribution by the 

 Department of Agriculture. There is no danger that this 

 country will suffer for any lack of plants, either for orna- 

 ment or use. Private enterprise can be trusted to secure 

 and disseminate seeds or bulbs, or roots or cuttings of every 

 tree or shrub or herb which we do not now possess, and 

 which promises to be of any horticultural or agricultural 

 value. 



The Collection of Funeral Wreaths and Offerings in 

 the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Giseh. 



ABOUT two miles from Cairo, over a dusty road, shaded 

 by equally dusty and parched, but picturesque rows 

 of that almost only Egyptian shade-tree, the Lebbek (Albiz- 

 zia Lebbek), facing the Nile and surrounded by very indif- 

 ferently kept, tropical, high-walled gardens, is the large 

 suburban palace of the late Ivhedive, Ismail Pasha. In it 

 is housed, since 1890, the enormous collection of Egyptian 

 antiquities that for some thirty years or more has been 

 known as the Boulaq Museum. It is a dreary building 

 and eminently unfiitted for the use to which it is now put. 

 Anything more incongruous can scarcely be imagined than 

 the very fantastic imitation-rococo decoration in the inte- 

 rior, and the endless rows of silent and stately gods and 

 goddesses, kings and priests that gaze in stony wonder at 

 the nondescript pink, blue, white and gilt stucco of the 

 very worst period of Franco-Turkish ornamentation. 



The special collection in question is very small, but is 

 probably the oldest botanical one in the world, as the bulk 

 of the specimens come from the coffins of the royal mum- 

 mies found secreted in the side of the mountain of Deir-el- 

 Bahari, in the necropolis of Thebes, in 18S1. It consists 

 of a few mounted and framed flowers on the walls, a glass 

 case of funeral wreaths, two more containing small earth- 

 enware bowls filled with cereals and fruits, and some very 

 ancient and desiccated-looking logs leaning against the 

 walls. It has been arranged and classified by Dr. G. 

 Schweinfurth, the eminent oriental botanist, and many of 

 the specimens are more than thirty centuries old. 



The most interesting of the specimens on the walls are 

 those of the Water-lilies. They are very frail and brownish, 

 but the hot, dry atmosphere of the rock-hewn tombs where 

 they were found has preserved their shape and character 

 to such a degree that they look scarcely more aged than 

 many a plant of the same species collected and preserved 

 within very recent years for herbarium purposes. The 

 White Lotus, Nymphasa Lotus, is the best known of the 

 Egyptian species, and is often represented on the monu- 



ments with all the details of the plant faithfully rendered; 

 it is known to have been in Egypt from the time of the 

 erection of the Great Pyramids. The flowers have been 

 very frequently found in the tombs, either as parts of gar- 

 lands or entirely decorating mummies, and it was in gen- 

 eral use, especially during the Ramesside period, for all 

 sorts of purposes. Immense bouquets and garlands of it 

 were used for decoration on festal days. Women carried 

 them in their hands or arranged them on their head-dresses, 

 the stems coiled diadem-fashion, with the flowers falling over 

 the forehead. The tuberous roots were used as food, even 

 the seeds were eaten ; its medical uses were known in the 

 ancient Egyptian pharmacopoeia, and what is interesting 

 to usis that the Egyptian name of the flower, Soushin, mean- 

 ing "Lily," has come down to us through various philo- 

 logical changes. Few of those who bear the name of 

 Susan are aware of its meaning or of its remote antiquity. 

 There are records of women of that name as far back as 

 the Twelfth Dynasty, 2466, B. C, and even men in the 

 time of the Pharoahs were known to have borne it. The 

 White Lotus is still found occasionally in Egypt, in a few 

 stagnant canals and in pools and ponds left after the inun- 

 dation of the Nile ; but it has vanished from the life of the 

 people. 



The Blue Lotus, Nymphaea coerulea, exists also in the 

 Giseh herbarium, and enters into the composition of a small 

 garland consisting of Celery-branches, Apium graveolens, 

 intermingled with the Lily-petals and those of a smaller 

 Nymphaea that has not been identified with any species 

 known in our time. It is less often found than the White 

 Lotus, but occurs as garlands around the necks of painted 

 personages in some very ancient tombs. It also enters 

 into the composition of the decorations put on the mummy 

 of the Great Ramses II. many years after his death, and is 

 said still to exist in Egypt. 



Papyrus, Cyperus Papyrus, is often found, usually the 

 stems, with the radiating head, laid in the hands of the 

 mummies. It is no longer seen wild in Egypt, though in 

 Abyssinia, Nubia, Syria and Asia Minor it grows sponta- 

 neously and forms impenetrable thickets on the river- 

 banks. Its many uses are too well known to enumerate 

 here. The wreaths that covered the mummy of Ramses II., 

 1333, B. C, are long, slender garlands of Willow-leaves, 

 doubled and sewed together with Date Palm fibre around a 

 twisted cord of the same material, interspersed here and 

 there with single petals of the Blue and of the White Lotus. 

 The Willow, Salix Safsaf, is a low shrub still to be seen on 

 the ban'ks of the Nile, and its leaves are the basis of most 

 of the funeral garlands that have come to light. It was 

 the sacred tree of the classical Tentyra or Tentyris, where 

 the Temple of Hathor, at Denderah, now stands, and one 

 of the religious ceremonies of the time, performed by the 

 king, was the erection of a Willow before the image of 

 the goddess. 



Other garlands are woven of the Willow and single petals 

 of Alcea ficifolia, a Malvaceous plant, which is still culti- 

 vated in some old Arabic gardens ; others have the Salix- 

 leaves, with scattered here and there the little, round, fluffy 

 balls of Acacia Nilotica, the Shant-tree of ancient writers, 

 and the source of the gum arable of commerce, an odorous 

 shrub that to-day grows in profusion along the river, and 

 in early spring fills the island of PhilEE with its delicious 

 fragrance. Other wreaths, again, are 'woven of a species of 

 Mimusops, supposed to be the Persea of antiquity, the spe- 

 cific .name of which is a matter of disagreement. The gar- 

 lands taken from the mummy of King Ahmes I., 1700, B. C, 

 were made of Willow, Acacia, Alcea and the yellow legu- 

 minous flowers of Sesbania /Egyptica, and in his coffin 

 were found smaller ones constructed of the blue-purple 

 flowers of Delphinium orientate, a Larkspur that after 

 three thousand years still retains traces of its color. The 

 latter plant is not known in the Egypt of to-day. Another 

 interesting garland is that found in the coffin of the Prin- 

 cess Nesi-Khonsou, and is composed of the usual Willow 

 and many Poppy-flowers, and faint madvings of red color are 



