Cyamus luteus. »i 



He consequently understands the famous prohibition in a literal, not in 

 a figurative, sense. The total disappearance of this plant from modern 

 Egypt favours the idea that it was not indigenous there, but brought 

 from India. And we should find but little difficulty in acceding to the 

 opinion of our learned friend, if we had not very strong doubts con- 

 cerning the truth of the modern doctrine which derives the mytholog} 

 of Egypt from that of India : but after all we have read on the subject 

 we do not scruple to confess that this doctrine appears to us to be in 

 all its parts unfounded.— Cycloptvdin. The roots and seeds are now 

 used in the East Indies as articles of food in the same manner as the} 

 formerly were in ancient Egypt. The root having been called Coloeas- 

 sia by some Greek writers, lias sometimes been mistaken for the mo- 

 dern Colocassia of the shops, which is the root of Arum Colocassia. 



Mr. Salisbury asserts, that the petioles are priekly and not smooth as 

 Willdenow describes them, a fact that I can attest, and which I pub- 

 lished in the Prodromus Florae Philadelphia many years ago. It is 

 surprising to me that Willdenow could ever have described them other- 

 wise, since even in dried specimens the petioles and even the pedun- 

 cles are beset with numerous, black, rigid, spiniform specks, which 

 render them quite rough to the touch. 



This magnificent plant had nearly disappeared for two seasons, from 

 the neighbourhood of this city, as I had occasion to mention in the 

 Compendium Florae Philadelphia*, (see vol.ii.p. 26,) but since that 



vol. ir. 22 



