52 
PAPYRUS. 
filaments parts into four ; and in the point, or par- 
tition, are four branches of flowers: the head of this 
is not unlike an ear of wheat in form ; but which 
in fact is but a chaffy, silky, soft husk. These 
heads, or flowers, grow upon the stalk alternately, 
and are not opposite to, or on the same line with, 
each other at the bottom. 
“ Pliny # says it has no seed ; but this we may 
be assured is an absurdity. The form of the flower 
sufficiently indicates that it was made to resolve it- 
self into the covering of one, which is certainly very 
small, and by its exalted situation, and thickness of 
the head of the flower, seems to have needed the 
extraordinary covering it has got, to protect it from 
the violent hold the wind must have had upon it. 
For the same reason, the bottoms of the filaments 
composing the head are sheathed in four concave 
leaves, which keep them close together, and prevent 
injury from the wind getting in between them. 
“ The stalk is of a vivid green, thickest at the 
bottom, and tapering up to the top ; it is of a 
triangular form. In the Jordan, the single side or 
apex of the triangle stood opposed to the stream, 
as the cut-water of a boat or ship, or the sharp 
angle of the buttress of a bridge, by which the pres- 
sure of the stream upon the stalk would be greatly 
diminished. I do not precisely remember how it 
stood in the lakes in Ethiopia and Egypt, and only 
have this remark in the notes I made at the Jordan. 
* Lib. xiii. cap. 13. 
f Pliny, lib. xiii. cap. 11. 
