ON INTRODUCED ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 87 



According to Caesar, the people of Britain painted themselves with 

 GLASTUM; usually considered to be wood (Isatis tinctoria). — Dios- 

 corides and Paulus iEgineta speak of the "isatis" used by dyers: the 

 I. tinctoria was seen in Greece by Bory de St. Vincent and Gittard ; 

 but it appears to have remained unknown in Egypt. 



In " B. C. 51," the accession of Cleopatra took place. Her name 

 occurs in hieroglyphic characters on various Egyptian monuments : 

 she built the small temple at Erment, or Hermonthis ; and founded the 

 temple at Dendera. 



The coins issued by Anthony and Cleopatra, bear perhaps the 

 earliest Latin inscriptions hitherto discovered in Egypt. 



With the death of Cleopatra, " B. C. 30," the independence of Egypt 

 ceased; and Augustus became the sole ruler of the Roman World. 

 From this time, also, gold disappears from the Egyptian coinage. 

 Augustus first carried obelisks away from Egypt ; but he continued the 

 temple at Dendera ; and his name in hieroglyphic characters has been 

 found on buildings at Talmis, Kalabsheh, Debot, Dendur, Phila3, and 

 on the temple of Isis at Thebes. His first prefect, Cornelius Gallus, is 

 accused of permitting statues of himself to be erected, and of having 

 pillaged the city of Thebes. 



The lutum of Virgil, Vitruvius, and Pliny, is referred by Fee to the 

 Reseda luteola. — This plant was seen by Forskal and Delile in culti- 

 vated ground at Cairo ; and is enumerated by Clot-Bey and Figari 

 among the plants used for dyeing in Egypt. 



The rododaphne of the Culex, and of Dioscorides, Pliny, and Apu- 

 leius, is clearly the Nerium oleander. — The oleander is enumerated by 

 Delile and others among the garden plants of Egypt ; and is said to 

 abound in Syria in a seemingly wild state ; but it does not harmonize 

 with the vegetation of the Mediterranean countries : I met with it truly 

 indigenous on the banks of the Godaveri in the Dekkan. 



The herba vettonica of Antonius Musa, Celsus v. 27, and Pliny, 

 according to the received opinion and Sibthorp's account of the Greek 

 usage, is the Betonica alopecuros. — The dried plant, as appears from 

 Alpinus, is imported and used medicinally in Egypt. 



Strabo, during his visit to Egypt, heard that sounds were uttered 

 by one of the colossi on the plain at Thebes. — But this deception of 

 the Vocal Memnon, did not become an object of pilgrimage until some 

 eighty years later. At the present day, the base of the colossus in 

 question, is found to be covered with Greek and Roman inscriptions ; 

 the certificates of visitors who had "heard Memnon." 



