525 
CYPERUS. 
Cres; involucels three-leaved, fetaceous, longer; fpike- 
lets in threes. Native of Egypt, Syria, Calabria, Sicily ; 
according to Strabo, in the lake Thrafimene, near Perugia. 
Papyrus was called by the Greeks biblus ; in Egypt it 
has the name of el berdi , and in Syria it is faid to be 
known by the name of babeer, which approaches near to 
the found of papyrus and paper. The general figure of 
this plant, as Pliny has rightly faid, refembles a thyrfus; 
the head is compofed of many fmall graify filaments, 
each about a foot long ; about the middle, each of thefe 
filaments parts into four, and in the point, or partition, 
are four branches of flowers ; the head of this is not un¬ 
like an ear of wheat in form, but in fa£t is but a chaffy, 
filky, foft, hufk. Thefe heads, or flowers, grow upon 
the (talk alternately, and are not oppofite to, or on the 
fame line with, each other at the bottom. Pliny fays 
the papyrus has no feed. It is very fmall, and by its ex¬ 
alted fituation, and thicknefs of the head of the flower, 
feems to have needed the extraordinary covering it has 
to protedl it from the violent hold which the wind mull 
have upon it. For the fame reafon the bottom of the 
filaments compofing the head are fheathed in four con¬ 
cave leaves, which keep them clofe together, and pre¬ 
vent injury from the wind getting in between them. The 
ftalk is of a vivid green, and of a triangular form ; it has 
but one root, which is large and ftrong ; Pliny fays, as 
thick as a man’s arm ; fo it probably was when the plant 
was fifteen feet high ; but the whole length of the Italk, 
Comprehending the head, being little more than ten feet, 
in the plants we now find, it is lefs in proportion. In 
the middle of this long root arifes the ftalk at right an¬ 
gles, the whole inverted having the figure of a T. 
From each fide of the large root proceed fmaller elaftic 
®nes, or fibres, in a diredtion perpendicular to it, and 
which, like the firings of a tent, fteady it and fix it to 
the earth at bottom. About two feet or little more of 
the lower part of the ftalk is clothed with long, hol¬ 
low, fword-fhaped leaves, covering each other like 
feales, and fortifying the foot of the plant; they are of a 
dufky brown or yellow colour. It grows in the lakes of 
Ethiopia and Egypt; in the river Jordan between Pa- 
neas and the lake of Tiberias ; and at the confluence of 
the Tigris and Euphrates ; but it was probably not pro- 
S ated into Afia and Greece, till the ufe of it, as raanu- 
ured into paper, was firft known. It does not grow 
in the body of the Nile itfelf, but in the califhes or 
places into which the river overflows and is ftagnant. 
The head is too heavy, the ftalk too (lender, tall, and 
feeble, the root too fhort and (lender, to reftft the violent 
preflure of wind dnd current in an open plain country, 
and a deep rapid river. 
The papyrus feems to have come down very early from 
Ethiopia, and to have been uled in Upper Egypt imme¬ 
diately after the difufe of hieroglyphics. According to 
Varro, it came not into general ufe in Greece, till after 
4 he conqueft of Egypt by Alexander ; yet it is plain from 
Anacreon, Alcaeus, ^Efchylus, and the comic poets, that 
ahat it was known in their time. Plato and Ariftotle 
fpeak of it, and fo do Herodotus and Theophraftus. We 
alfo know that it was of old in ufe among the Ionians, 
who probably brought it in very early days diredtly from 
Egypt. Numa, who lived three hundred years before 
Alexander, is faid to have left a number of books writ¬ 
ten on papyrus. The ancients divided the plant into 
three parts. The top, with the thyrfe of flowers, adorned 
the temples, and crowned the ftatues of the gods. Age- 
iilaus preferred being crowned with this to any other, 
on account of its fimplicity. Antigonus made ufe of no¬ 
thing elfe but the ftalk for ropes and cables to his fleets, 
before the ufe of fpartum was known; which, though 
very little better, (till ferves that purpofe in fmall (hips 
on the coaft of Provence to this day. The top of the 
papyrus was likewife ufed for caulking the veifels, by 
forcing it into the fearns, and afterwards covering it 
with pitch. 
Vgl. V. No. 292* 
Pliny tells us, that the whole plant together was ufed 
for making boats, a piece of the acacia-tree being put in 
the bottom to ferve as a keel ; and this is (till the only 
boat which they have in Abyflinia ; they call it tancoa.^ 
Probably the junks of the Red Sea, faid to be made of 
leather, were firft built with papyrus, and covered with 
(kins. The bottom, root, or woody part, of this plant, 
before it turned hard, was chewed for the fweet juice 
contained in it; this is (till praftifed in Abyflinia, where 
they likewife chew the root of Indian corn, and 0/ every 
fort of cyperus. Herodotus tells us, that about a cubit 
of the lower part of the ftalk was roafted ever the fire 
and eaten. On account of the great fcarcity of wood in 
Egypt, this lower part was likewife ufed in making cups, 
moulds, and other utenfils; alfo for boards or covers to 
their books. 
Paper was made after the following manner : the thick 
part of the ftalk being cut in half, the pellicle between 
the pith and the bark, or, perhaps, the two pellicles, 
were dripped off, and divided by an iron inftrument, 
which probably was (harp-pointed, but did not cut at 
the edges. This was fquared at the fides fo as to be 
like a ribband, then laid upon a fmooth table or drefler, 
after being cut into the length that it was required the 
leaf (hould be. Thefe ftripes, or ribbands, were lapped 
over each other by a very thin border, and then pieces 
of the fame kind were laid tranfverfely, the length of 
thefe anfwering to the breadth of the firft. A weight 
was then laid on them while moift ; and they were thus 
left to dry in the fun. It was fuppofed that the water 
of the Nile had a gummy quality in it: but this is with¬ 
out foundation; the faccharine juice of the plant caufes 
the adhelion of the ftripes, and the water only ferves to 
diflolve and diffufe this. Paper, fays the abbe Rochon, 
is manufactured in Madagafcar from the papyrus, which 
the natives call fanga-fanga. They pull off’ with great 
dexterity the inner bark ; divide it into very thin fila¬ 
ments, which they ntoiften with water; and, having laid 
them acrofs each other, in various directions, prefs them 
well down. They are then boiled in a ftrong lye of a(hes,. 
and afterwards pounded in a large wooden mortar till 
they are reduced to a pafte. This pafte is waffled and 
drenched with water upon a frame made of bamboos in 
the form of a grate. When this operation is finifhed, 
the leaves are fpread out to dry in the fun, and are glazed 
with a decoction of rice-water. This paper is of a yel- 
lowilh colour; but, when it is well glazed, it does not 
imbibe the ink. The pens ufed by thefe iflanders are 
made of the bamboo. Their ink is made from a decoc¬ 
tion in boiling water of the bark of a tree, which they 
call arandrato. It is not quite fo black as ours, but more 
fhining. The art of writing was doubtlefs brought into 
the illand by the Arabs, who made a conqueft of it about 
three hundred years ago. But the abbe Rochon calls 
the Papyrus nilotica a tree. We cannot therefore tell what 
material this Madagafcar paper is made of. 
28. Cyperus fpathaceus, or (heathed cyperus: culm 
clothed with (heaths of leaves ; peduncles pinnate, la¬ 
teral. Size of the fugar-cane. Native of Virginia and 
the Cape of Good Elope. Perennial. 
29. Cyperus alternifolius, or alternate-leaved cyperus: 
culm naked, alternately leafy at the end ; peduncles la¬ 
teral, proliferous. Perennial; culms a foot high; leaves 
at the top crowded, enfiform, half a foot long, even,, 
roughifh at the edge. Native of Madagafcar; flowers 
in Eebruary and March. 
30. Cyperus denudatus, or naked cyperus : involucre 
fcarcely any. Culm two feet high, with one (heath in 
the middle of it. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
31. Cyperus diftans, or feparated cyperus: culm 
naked, umbel leafy, (uperdecompound; fpikes alter¬ 
nate, filiform : fiofcules diftant. Root tuberous ; culm 
two feet high, three-fided, ftriated, yellowifti. Native 
of Malabar. 
32. Cyperus pannonicus, or dwarf cyperus; culm ob- 
6 S i'curely 
