THE SWEET CALAMUS, OR CALAMUS AROMATICUS OF THE ANCIENTS. 237 
From Dioscorides we learn that its virtues and localities were well known to 
both the Greeks and Arabians. 
Clusius, whilst making his researches amongst the medical plants of the East, 
understood from the merchants who traded in this article that it grew naturally in 
the valley betwixt Libanus and Antilibanus ; but he was not able to ascertain that 
to be the hict ; the Sweet Eush {SchcBnus), called Camel’s Hay, was found to abound 
in that locality, but nothing that answered the description of the Calamus ; and from 
other sources he afterwards learned that the greater part if not the whole of that 
perfume w^as brought by merchants from India. 
From the above remarks we are led to the supposition that the KaXafios {calamos) 
of the ancients was a kind of fragrant reed or cane, and was probably identical with 
the Sweet Cane of Jeremiah, c. vi., v. 20 ; and Isaiah, c. v. ; although the word in 
Jeremiah, as mentioned in the Septuagint, is KivafjLCtijjiov {cinnamon), and by Isaiah 
as OvcnaiJia, “a perfume.” In Ezekiel, c. xxvii., v. 19 ; and c. xxx., v. 23, however, 
KdkajjLos (calamos) is mentioned in connexion with Cassia, and other articles 
purchaseable in the markets of Tyre; and in the Canticles, c. iv., v. 14, Calamus 
is spoken of as growing in a superb garden, watered by streams from Lebanon, 
along with Cinnamon, Spikenard, Saffron, Myrrh, Aloes, Frankincense, and other 
chief species. 
As the Calamus was cultivated in a choice garden, along with plants from the 
East Indies, and other distant countries, it would appear probable that, like them, 
it was of foreign introduction, or if indigenous it was so scarce, like some of our 
native plants, as to be little known. Tradition reports it to have been one of the 
gifts presented to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, or Saba ; if so, its introduction 
into Syria would be more than 900 years before the Christian era, and it is not 
difficult to understand how it might afterwards have become naturalised in the 
localities where it was observed by Dioscorides, Theophrastus, and other writers of 
a less ancient date. The quantity, however, found naturally in Syria in their days 
must have been very insufficient to supply the vast demand which an article of so 
much repute would insure ; and the quality, also, might be very inferior to that of 
the foreign article ; hence it is probable that large importations, perhaps from India, 
were made through the merchants who traded in spices and other equally valuable 
commodities. Indeed India is rich in aromatic reeds and grasses, and amongst these 
we might mention a few of the most prominent ; and first, the Khus, or Koosa 
Grass {Anatheriim muricatum); the fragrant roots of which are placed amongst 
clothes to scent them and keep away insects, in the same manner as we use Lavender 
flowers. They are also wove into loose mats or screens, which, when hung before 
doors and windows, and sprinkled with water, temper the violence of the heat, and 
at the same time fill the apartments where they are used, with a very agreeable 
perfume. The Ginger Grass, or Koshee {Anatherum nardus), is another of tliese 
fragrant reeds ; it has even by some been thought to be the Nard, or Spikenard of 
the ancients, which, however, is most likely the Nardostachys Jatamense. 
The Ataxia Horsfieldii and Hierochloe borealis also emit a rich perfume 
