566 THE UNIVERSE. 



Being the object of a siDecial worship in ancient Egypt, 

 where temples were even reared to it, this sacred plant 

 was sometimes swathed in small bandages and solemnly 

 deposited in the sarcophagus. The daring genius of 

 naturalists sought to pry into these vegetable mummies, 

 in order to see if they did not yet retain some spark of 

 life after so many ages of sleep. And we are told that 

 these corjises of roots, Avithdrawn from their double prison 

 and placed in a favouring soil, quickly vegetated again, 

 becoming decked with floAvers and fruits. 



he assured me had grown from grains collected in an Egyptian sarcophagus. 

 These Ijlades were twice as high as those of our cereal, and the ears were of a 

 peculiar character. But as ]M. Louis Figuier judiciously observes in liis work on 

 botany, we ought to be on our guard about such prodigies ; the malignity of the 

 vulgar has iu such matters only too often deceived the good faith of some 

 observers. — Ilistoire des Plantes. Paris, 1865, p. 19S. 



