Chap. 66.] 
FLUTE HEEDS. 
407 
beneficial to the teetli, having, in fact, an equal degree of pun- 
gency with mustard. 
The terms of admiration in which they are spoken of by 
the ancients compels me to enter into some more minute de- 
tails relative to the reed-beds of Lake Orchomenus. Characias^** 
was the name given there to a reed of stout and compact 
quality, while a thinner one was known as the plotias; this last 
was to be found growing on the floating islands there, while 
the former grew upon the banks that were covered by the 
waters of the lake. A third kind again, which had tlie name 
of *^ auleticon,'' was the same that is now known as the mu- 
sical pipe^^ reed. This reed used to take nine years to grow, 
as it was for that period that the waters of the lake were 
continuall}^ on the increase ; it used to be looked upon as a 
prodigy of evil omen, if at the end of its rise its waters re- 
mained overflowing so long as a couple of years ; a thing that 
was observed at the period of the Athenian disasters at Che- 
ronaea, and on various other occasions. This lake has the name 
of Lebaida, at the part where the river Cephisus enters it. 
When this inundation has lasted so long as a year, the 
reed is found large enough to be available for the purposes of 
fowling : at this period it used to be called zeugites.^^ On the 
other hand, when the waters subsided at an earlier period, the 
reeds were known as bombycise,^^ being of a more slender form. 
In this variety, too, the leaf of the female plant was broader 
and whiter than that of the others, while that upon which 
there was little or no down bore the name of the eunuch reed. 
The stem of this last variety was used for the manufacture of 
concert^- flutes. I must not here pass by in silence the mar- 
vellous care which the ancients lavished upon these instru- 
ments, a thing which will, in some measure, plead as an apo- 
logy for the manufacture of them at the present day of silver 
in preference. The reed used to be cut, as it was then looked 
upon as being in the best condition, at the rising of Arcturus 
2^ The Arundo phragmites of Linnaeus. The Plotias, no doubt, was 
only a variety of it. 
39^ <( Arundo tibialis," The story about the time taken by it to grow, and 
the increase of the waters, is, of course, fabulous. 
The " yoke reed," or " reed for a double flute.'* 
Perhaps so called from the silkiness of its flossy pinicules, 
*2 Tliis seems to be the meaning of "ad inclusos cantus.'* 
*3 B. xviii. c. 74. 
