FLOWERS AND FRUITS OF SCRIPTURE. 
517 
quite different name — gome — in the Hebrew 
language. Other reedy plants are referred to 
in the Scriptures, under the name agmon. In 
some cases it is possible that this latter term 
may have reference to the Papyrus, and this 
seems especially probable in the passage, (Isa. 
lviii. 5,) where the prophet inquires in bitter 
irony, if the fast acceptable to the Lord is for 
a man " to bow do wn his head as a bulrush." The 
force of the allusion will be seen by a reference 
to the accompanying engraving. It is a coin- 
cidence somewhat favouring the view just 
expressed, that the term " bulrush," which has 
been adopted by our translators, in this pas- 
sage of Isaiah, has also been used in those in 
which it is certain that the paper reed is 
Papyrus antiquorum. 
intended, the original reading being gome, the 
Hebrew name of the Papyrus. It may, more- 
over, be mentioned, that few plants more ill 
accord with the idea of " bowing the head," 
than does the bulrush or Typha, one of the 
most erect, rigid, and unbending of herbs. 
It appears that the word gome occurs in but 
four instances in the Scriptures, and in two of 
these is in our version rendered " bulrushes." 
These passages occur in Exodus ii. 3, and 
Isaiah xviii. 2. In Job viii. 11, and Isaiah 
xxxv. 7, it is translated " rushes." 
No mention of the Papyrus appears to be 
made in the Scriptures in connexion with the 
use which has given it its name. In both the 
passages referred to, the allusion is to the 
ancient application of the reed in the con- 
struction of floating vessels. Thus we are 
told that Jochebed, the mother of Moses, 
when she could no longer hide her infant son, 
" took for him an ark of ' bulrushes,' and 
daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put 
the child therein, and she laid it in the flags 
by the river's brink." And thus we also 
learn, that the Ethiopians, as early as the eighth 
century before the Christian era, sent their 
ambassadors by the sea, " even in vessels of 
' bulrushes ' upon the waters." It has been 
argued, apparently from this fact, that Ethiopia 
is the native country of the Papyrus, and that 
at a very remote date it naturally descended 
the Nile into Egypt. 
The Papyrus, or paper reed, is the Pa- 
pyrus antiquorum of botanists. It is a per- 
ennial aquatic herb, with a creeping hori- 
zontal rootstock as thick as one's wrist, from 
which the erect triangular vivid green stems 
grow erect ; these stems grow from ten to four- 
teen feet high, sometimes even more, according 
to Pliny ; the base of the stem is invested 
with rudimentary leaves in the form of long 
sheathing brownish scales. At the top of the 
stem grows an elegant drooping tuft of slender 
branches, extremely graceful, having the ap- 
pearance of an elegant plume. These slender 
branches, or grassy filaments, are about a foot 
in length ; about the middle each parts into 
four, and at this point or partition grow the 
small brown chaffy clusters of flowers which 
are represented by the dark-coloured dots in 
our engraving. The appearance of the Pa- 
pyrus, when growing in a healthy and vi- 
gorous manner, is very graceful, chiefly 
owing to these plumes of drooping filamentous 
branches. It is therefore a very desirable 
subject for cultivation among exotic plants ; 
and our illustration was taken from a very 
beautiful specimen so cultivated in the garden 
of the Royal Botanic Society, in the Regent's 
Park. The Papyrus, formerly known as 
Cyperus Papyrus, is not a rush, but belongs 
to the family of sedges — Cyperacese. The 
rootstock, which, as already described, grows 
to the thickness of a man's wrist, acquires 
such hardness as to be used in the construc- 
tion of various kinds of cups and other uten- 
sils. The tender shoots are said to have been 
eaten, either raw, roasted, or boiled, by the 
Egyptians. 
We must now briefly glance at the uses to 
which the Papyrus was anciently applied ; 
and first of paper : — This article appears to 
have been used in Upper Egypt immediately 
after the disuse of hieroglyphics. We are 
