54 
PAPYRUS. 
which alone it grows. In all such climates there is 
some particular wind that reigns longer than other, 
and this, being always the most violent as well as 
the most constant, gives to heavy-headed trees, or 
plants, an inclination contrary to that from which it 
blows.” 
The old botanists placed the papyrus among the 
grasses ; and being at a loss to find out its proper 
genus, were content to call it merely by the name 
of papyrus : at the same time they found a plant in 
Sicily which they considered as a distinct species, 
and therefore made two kinds, one the Egyptian, 
and the other the Sicilian. Modern botanists, how- 
ever, observed that these two plants were one and 
the same species of cyperus ; accordingly they have 
not made any distinction between the Sicilian pa- 
pyrus and that which was found on the banks of 
the Nile. 
