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Of PLANTS, SHRUBS, and TREES. 



PAPYRUS. 



THE papyrus is a cyperus, called by the Greeks Biblus. 

 There is no doubt but it was early known in fcgvpt, 

 iince we learn from Horus Apollo, the Egyptians, wilhing 

 to defcribe the antiquity of their origin, figured a faggot, 

 or bundle of papyrus, as an emblem of the food they firfl 

 fubfilted on, when the ufe of wheat was not yet known in 

 that country. But I mould rather apprehend that another 

 plant, hereafter defcribed, and not the papyrus, was what 

 was fubilituted for wheau, for though the Egyptians fucked 

 the honey or fweetnefs from the root of the papyrus, it does 

 not appear that any part of this cyperus could be ufed for 

 food, nor is it fo at this day, though the Enfete, the plant to 

 which I allude, might, without difficulty, have been ufed for 

 bread in early ages before the difcovery of wheat ; in feveral 

 provinces it holds its place at this day. 



The papyrus feems to me to have early come down from 

 Ethiopia, and to have been ufed in Upper Egypt immediate- 

 ly after the difufe of hieroglyphics, and the firit paper made 

 i from 



