INTRODUCTION. xiii 



Prosper Alpinus's work then, fo far from being a col- 

 lection of plants and trees of Egypt, may be faid- to be a trea- 

 tife of plants that are not in Egypt, but by accident ; they 

 are gleanings of natural hiflory from Syria, Arabia, Nubia, 

 Abyflinia, Perfia, Malabar, and Indoflan, of which, as far as 

 I could difcern or difcover, feven fpecies only remained 

 when I was in Egypt, moflly trees of fuch a growth as to 

 be out of the power of every thing but the ax. 



The plant that I fhall now fpeak of, the Papyrus, is a 

 flrong proof of this, and is a remarkable initance of the 

 violent changes thefe fubjects have undergone in a few 

 ages, it was at the nrft the repofitory of learning and of 

 record ; it was the vehicle of knowledge from one nation 

 to another ; its ufes were fo extended, that it came to be 

 even the food of man, and yet we are now difputing what 

 this plant was, and what was its figure, and whether or 

 not it is to be found in Egypt, 



A gentleman * at the head of the literary world, who 

 from his early years has dedicated himfelf to the fludy of 

 the theory of this fcience, and at a riper age has travelled 

 through the world in the more agreeable purfuit of the 

 practical part of it, hath allured me, that, unlefs from bad 

 drawings, he never had an idea of what this plant was till 

 I firft gave him a very fine fpecimen. The Count de Cay- 

 lus fays, that having heard there was a fpecimen of this 

 plant in Paris, he ufed his utmoft endeavours to find it, 

 but when brought to him, it appeared to be a cyperus of 



a very 



* Sir Jofeph Banks* 



