129 
and on the overflowing of the Nile. The separate sub- 
stances are almost all the same as those cultivated in 
India; of Mr. Wilkinson's list, the Clover, Lupin, and 
Dyer's Madder, are the only plants which are not so. 
The roots and seeds of three kinds of Lotus {Nelum- 
binm speciosum and two Nymphceas) also afforded them 
food. The Vine extensively cultivated, yielded wine ; and 
the Olive, oil ; the Date- Palm, both food and an article 
of export to the Arabs and Africans. The Peach was 
probably introduced from Persia. The plant called Persea, 
has been supposed by different botanists to be either Bala- 
nites cegyptiaca, or Cordia Myxa, both of which are 
Indian plants; the former is also common in the deserts 
of Egypt : but neither appears to me to agree with the 
descriptions of the fruit of Persea. The Cotton, though 
introduced in later, does not seem to have been known 
in the early times of Egypt ; for it is never found in 
their tombs, the cloths investing mummies having been 
ascertained, by microscopic observation, to be invariably 
linen. But among the substances the produce of Egypt, 
as among those of Arabia, we do not find either spices or 
aromatics, or even perfumes. The flowers of Egyptian 
plants are, indeed, expressly mentioned as being without 
scent. Neither do we find any of the substances which 
they required for their sacrifices, or for the purposes of 
embalming ; these, therefore, they must have procured by 
commerce with a distant, though still the nearest country, 
India and its pendent Ceylon. 
From the absence, therefore, of such substances from 
the soil of Egypt, and their presence in the arts and reli- 
gious ceremonies of its inhabitants ; we might, independent 
of other testimony, deduce a commercial connexion with 
countries however distant, which were alone capable of 
supplying such articles. Hence we should be led to infer 
