236 THE SWEET CALAMUS, OR CALAMUS AROMATICUS OF THE ANCIENTS. 
amongst the ancients, we must in some measure depend for our knowledge of the 
true plant upon their writings, and the observations and discoveries made by 
more modern and recent writers and travellers, especially such as have collected 
information respecting the productions and commerce of the East. 
In marshes, and other w 7 atery places, there grows in almost every county in 
Great Britain, and also in many parts of the continent, a perennial flag. It has 
horizontal, fibrous, and crooked roots, which are usually about an inch in thickness, 
and possesses a very pleasant fragrance. The leaves are long, and sword-shaped, 
sheathing into each other. The flowers are small and inconspicuous, but are 
produced on a spadix, and form a green spike, issuing from the edge of the leaf. 
This plant is the Sweet Flag, or Calamus ; the Acorns Calamus of our shops and 
botanical catalogues. It possesses an aromatic-bitter principle, and has been thought 
to be of some use in medicine ; but at present nearly the only use that is made of it, 
is in the manufacture of hair-powder, to which it gives an agreeable perfume. In 
Constantinople, either this or a nearly allied species, is made into a confection, and 
esteemed a good stomachic. Formerly considerable quantities of either this root, or 
that of some other species resembling it, were annually imported to this country 
under the name of Calamus Aromaticus ; this led many persons to believe that this 
was really the plant so highly prized by the ancients, and, indeed, much might be 
advanced in favour of such a supposition, especially if we take into consideration the 
wide range of climate over which this plant is found to grow, being even according to 
report, abundant in continental India. 
If, however, we examine carefully the writings of the ancients, there appear 
sufficient reasons for rejecting this flag, and substituting another and a different 
plant, having the growth and appearance of a reed or cane. Thus Theophrastus, in 
speaking on this subject, and informing us of its locality, mentions that, in a little 
valley called Anion, at the foot of Mount Libanus, there grows the Kakafxos, or 
Sweet Reed, and ctx_olvos (schanos), or Sweet Rush ; he also states that no fragrance 
is emitted whilst it is growing, but when partially dried, the smell is apparent at some 
distance. 
Strabo also informs us, that the KaXa^os (calamos) grows in the country of 
Sabsei, and in speaking of Syria, and its mountains Libanus and Antilibanus, he 
mentions that in the valley betwixt them there is a lake, which produces both the 
Aromatic Rush, ayoivos (schcenos), and the Sweet Reed, Kakafjios (calamos), and that 
the Balsam (Balsamodendron Gileadense) also grows abundantly in the same place. 
Polybius, who lived 150 years after Theophrastus, mentions the same valley 
betwixt Libanus and Antilibanus, and calls it Marsyas ; stating, that in the wet 
marshy ground about the lake, both the aromatic reeds, /cdAa/xos, and sweet rushes, 
grow in abundance. 
Pliny also in his writings says: — "Within Arabia there groweth the Sweet 
Calamus, which is common both to this country and to the Syrians likewise, but that 
of Syria passeth all the rest, and cometh up in a valley between Mount Lebanon and 
another mountain : there groweth both the Sweet Calamus and the Juncus odoratus" 
