INTRODUCED PLANTS OF EGYPT. 



383 



In reference, however, to the Greek word xufsipoj, it should be ob- 

 served ; that Inula Arabica and I. undulata, (two indigenous 

 plants,) together with Croton tinctorium, are in Egypt called 

 ' ghobbeyreh.' 



From Belon's account of the modern usage at Constantinople, it 

 would appear, that the rfcXivov of Homer, Aristophanes, and Plutarch, 

 is the smallage, (Apium graveolens.) The ' apium amarum' of Vir- 

 gil, may also be compared. — Alpinus, speaks of the cultivation of 

 the A. graveolens in Egypt. 



The rye (Secale cereale), has been already noticed, as possibly figured 

 on the earliest Egyptian monuments. From the modern usage in 

 certain parts of Italy, the oXupa of Homer and Herodotus, is supposed 

 to be the rye : and, according to the received opinion and the mo- 

 dern Greek usage, the 'sekale' of Pliny, is the same plant. — Al- 

 pinus, appears to be the only modern writer who has seen rye in 

 Egypt. 



The xeyxfoz of Hesiod, Dioscorides, and others, is referred by Mathioli 

 to the Panicum miliaceum. Herodotus, speaks of the xey^p^? being 

 cultivated both at Babylon and on the Borysthenes ; and the geo- 

 graphical range, agrees only with that of P. miliaceum and P. Ita- 

 licum. — Forskal and other modern writers, speak of the presence 

 of the P. miliaceum in Egypt: and Hasselquist, found the plant 

 under cultivation in Palestine. 



The ^aXaxn of Hesiod, Theophrastus, and others, according to the re- 

 ceived opinion and the modern Greek usage, is the mallow, (Malva.) 

 Two species, M. verticillata and M. sylvestris, are regularly culti- 

 vated as esculents, in Egypt. 



4- The Greek-Egyptian Period. 



The Fourth Period in the history of Egypt, commences with Psam- 

 meticus; or with the first introduction of a body of Greeks, about 

 B. c. 650. In reference generally to the affairs of nations, the Period 

 under consideration, might be termed, "the Time of the Greeks and 

 Romans." 



The Egyptian constructions of the Greek Period, can be readily 

 recognised ; by a difference in the style of art, by the increased 

 number of hieroglyphic characters, by the reduplication of the dei- 



