U2 
India in making a fragrant ointment, highly valued by the 
natives of that country. In connexion with this, may be 
mentioned the sweet Calamus, literally sweet cane or reed, 
(Exod. xxx. 23) where it is mentioned as one of the ingre- 
dients of the holy anointing oil ; and in " the Spikenard 
and Saffron, Calamus and Cinnamon," Cantic. iv. 14 ; so, 
in Ezekiel, xxvii. 19, " bright iron, cassia and calamus, 
were in thy market ;" and " to what purpose cometh there 
to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far 
country," Jerem. vi. 20. In all these places, the word 
employed in the Hebrew is kaneh-bosem, which is trans- 
lated sweet cane or calamus, and commonly thought to be 
equivalent to the Calamus aromaticus of the ancients. 
This, the naba/to; and xaha/to; iuo<,i*% of the Greeks, is 
often stated to be the Acorus Calamus of botanists, a plant 
common in ditches and marshy parts of Europe, and in 
moist situations on mountains in India. It has a warm and 
aromatic taste, with some degree of aroma, but certainly 
too little, to have ever been thought worthy of being an 
article of commerce from distant countries ; particularly as 
it might so much more easily have been found at home. 
The author of the notes on Exod. xxx. 23. in the Pictorial 
Bible, " apprehends that it was a species of Cyperus, since, 
&c. we know that several members of that genus have 
odoriferous roots, and are used as perfumes by the natives 
of the regions where they grow." (v. p. 83.) This most 
probably is much nearer it than the Acorus Calamus. 
Having shown that the Calamus Aromaticus of Dios- 
corides (p. 33) is a species of Andropogon (a conclusion 
which had also been come to by Sprengel and Dierbach, 
with respect to the xahapos zuoaxo; of Hippocrates) ; I am 
of opinion that the Calamus of Scripture is the Andro- 
pogon Calamus Aromaticus, which I have mentioned at 
p. 33 and 1 13. This, for the delightful fragrance of its 
