Batu—Ldentification of the Animals and Plants of India. 335 
‘“‘The first western writer who mentions this substance is Theophrastos, 
who continued the labours of Aristotle in Natural History. He called 
it a sort of honey extracted from reeds. Strabo states, on the authority 
of Nearkhos that reeds in India yield honey without bees. _Adlian 
(Mist. Anim.) speaks of a kind of honey pressed from reeds which 
grew among the Prasi. Seneca (Epist. 84) speaks of sugar as a kind 
of honey found in India on the leaves of reeds, which had either been 
dropped on them from the sky as dew, or had exuded from the reeds 
themselves. This was a prevalent error in ancient times, e. g. Disko- 
rides says that sugar is a kind of concreted honey found upon canes in 
India and Arabia Felix; and Pliny, that it is collected from canes 
like a gum. He describes it as white, and brittle between the teeth, 
of the size of a hazel nut at most, and used in medicine only. So also 
Lucian, alluding to the Indians near the Ganges, says that they quaff 
sweet gums from tender reeds.” 
- It has been conjectured that the sugar described by Pliny and Dios- 
korides was sugar-candy obtained from China.”’ See page 330, where 
I have suggested that this was the origin of the ‘stones sweeter than 
figs or honey,’’ which were supposed to have been dug out of the earth. 
3. Brows. 
Papyrus pangoret, Nees. (?)—Papyrus Reed. 
According to Herodotus” ‘‘the Indians wear garments (éo@jrTes 
Adivac) made from a plant which grows in the rivers. Having col- 
lected and beaten it, they interweave it in the form of a mat, and they 
clothe themselves with it after the manner of a cuirass.” 
The above-named species of papyrus is commonly used for weaving 
into mats, and is sometimes used by fishermen as a protection for their 
bodies from wet and cold. In some respects the description would 
suit either hemp ( Cannabis sativa, Linn.) or jute (Corchorus capsularis, 
Linn.) ; but on the whole I cannot accept that it was the fibre of either 
of these to which Herodotus refers, especially as regards hemp, since 
he elsewhere® describes its use by the Skythians, and compares its 
qualities with those of flax. 
If not the papyrus, it was probably one of the other species of 
marsh plants™ of which mats are made in India at the present day. 
‘‘The luxuriance of the grasses and reeds in Sind,” says Captain 
Langley,® ‘‘ especially near the Indus, surpasses anything I ever saw 
elsewhere. The reed known as kana grows to an immense height, is 
notched like the bamboo, and has a beautiful feathery head. This 
reed is invaluable to the Sindians for huts, mats, baskets, chairs, &c. 
79 Phalie, 111. cap. xcviil. 80 Phalie, 111. cap. ccii., & rv. caps. Ixxiv., Ixxv. 
81 Saccharum sara, Roxb., and S. spontaneum, Linn., &e. &e. 
82 Narrative of a Residence at the Court of Meer Ali Moorad, vol. i. p. 275. 
