55 



cultivated ones ; but it is said that after a short culture the wild ones 

 attain to the same perfection. It is, therefore, no longer doubted that 

 the -watermelon was first cultivated in Egypt, and spread from thence 

 to Asia Minor, and later to South Russia and Hungary. The water- 

 melon is mentioned in the complaint of the Children of Israel — " We 

 remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, 

 and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick." (Num- 

 bers xi., 5.) 



The predilection of the Ancient Egyptians for the onion tribe is not 

 alone established from the above Scripture passage, but also from the 

 numerous representations of it on the ancient monumentf . We also 

 learn from Herodotus that the labourers employed building the Pyramid 

 of Cheops ate onions, leeks, and garlick to the value of 1,600 silver 

 talents (about £649,600). The Modern Egyptians follow the example 

 of their ancestors, as onions are extensively cultivated by them, 

 even in the oasis of the Lybian Desert, and garlic not less so in the 

 Valley of the Nile. 



There is another fruit foind in the tombs, of which the Berlin 

 Museum possesses a number of seeds. It has been determined to be 

 Balanites JEgyptiaca, a small tree found in North-tropieal Africa, ex- 

 tending from Senegal to Abyssinia. Single specimen trees are found in 

 the gardens of Modern Egypt, but in ancient times it must have been 

 largely cultivated, as the seeds are commonly found entombed. 



Other fruits in the Museum of Berlin have been identified as 

 Sapindus emarginatus, Vahl. The tree is a native of East India, where 

 its fruits are used as soap, both for cleaning the person and for washing 

 fine linen. In Sanskrit they are called phenilla, which means froth. It 

 is not improbable that the Ancient Egyptians, whose commercial inter- 

 course with East India is not doubted, received the fruits from thence 

 just as their descendants do to this day for the same purposes from the 

 East. 



The discovery of branches of the poisonous shrub, Calotropis process, 

 R, Br., a native of Persia, is the more interesting as it has been ascer- 

 tained that the branches still contain the intense bitter natural to the 

 plant, and has proved that the bitter principle in plants is more lasting 

 than that of sugar. 



