404 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 4. 
without doubt, “the best of all the white Grapes except 
the Muscats.” 
Next among the plants named in our version of the 
Bible is the Bulrush. Its Hebrew name, gema, 
is thus translated in two or three places in our version; 
but in Job viii, 11, it is rendered Rush — “Can the 
Rush grow up without mire ? ” but wherever the 
name gema occurs as a proper name, there is no 
doubt that it signifies the Papyrus antiquorum, or 
Cyperus papyrus of modern botauists, which is the 
Papyrus rush, or plant of which the Egyptians con¬ 
structed their paper. 
It is no objection to this conclusion tffat the mother 
of Moses, when she committted him to the waters of 
the Nile, constructed the boat, or ark, of this gema, or 
that the prophet threatens woes to the nation “ that 
sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of 
gema upon the waters" ( Isaiah, xviii, 2). This is no ob¬ 
jection, because we find that such vessels were u daubed 
with slime and pitch ” to render them impervious by 
the water {Exoilus ii, 3); and boats of such light mate¬ 
rials as reeds and osiers are common in various parts of 
the world; and Pliny tells us that in his time, 1,800 
years ago, the Egyptians still employed the Papyrus for 
this purpose. He says of this plant—“The Papyrus 
grows in the Egyptian marshes, or in the stagnant 
waters of the Nile, not exceeding two cubits (three feet) 
in depth, its root spreading, and of an arm’s thickness • 
its stems three-sided, and not more than ten cubits in 
length, gracefully tapering, and ending with a head of 
a thyrse form; ” or, as old Philemon Holland para¬ 
phrases Pliny’s words, thyrsi-modo, “ a head inclosed 
and round in manner of a Cabbage.” In that thyrse- 
like head, says Pliny, “ there is no seed, nor is it of 
other use than with its flowers to form coronets for the 
Gods.” In this statement he is incorrect. The seed 
is abundant, though very small. Its lofty position, and 
the thickness of the bead of the flower, observes Pro¬ 
fessor Martyn, seem to have needed the extraordinary 
covering it has to protect it from the violent hold the 
wind must have upon it. For the same reason, the 
bottom of the filaments composing the head are 
sheathed in four concave leaves, which keep them close 
together, and jmevent injury from the winds getting in 
between them. 
“The Egyptians,” continues Pliny, “employed the 
roots of the Papyrus in place of wood, not only for fuel, 
but in the formation of household vessels. From the 
same Papyrus they wove ( texuntur) rowing-boats 
(navigia ), aud sails from the bark, and curtains, and 
clothing, and carpeting, and cordage. They eat it also 
both, raw and boiled, but swallowed only the juice. 
They prepared from it sheets of paper (chartee), divided, 
by means of a sharp-pointed implement, into films ex¬ 
cessively thin, but as broad as possible.” ( Natural Hist. 
1. xiii c. 11.) Remarking upon these particulars, Pro¬ 
fessor Martyn observes, that boats made of Papyrus 
stems and leaves are now the only boats that they have 
in Abyssinnia, where they are called Tancoa. The 
chewing of the root is also practised in Abysiunia, 
-where the people likewise chew the roots of Indian 
Corn, and of every species of Cyperus. The navigia of 
Pliny are the cymlce of the poet Lucan; and that the 
Papyrus was certainly employed for constructing such 
vessels has been verified by late discoveries of paintings 
in the Egyptian sepulchres. In these, men are fre¬ 
quently represented making rafts of rushes; and in 
Upper Egypt the peasants still use them, indiscrimi¬ 
nately with the stalks of the Doura, in crossing from one 
side of the river to the other ( Archcdogia, xvi., 176). 
The paper was made in the manner following. The 
thick part of the stalk being cut in halves, the fibrous 
parts between the pith and the bark were stripped off, 
were squared at the sides so as to resemble a ribband; 
then, after cutting to the length desired, were laid upon 
a smooth table, lapped over each other after the manner 
of putting on tiles, similar ribband-like pieces were 
placed across them and similarly overlapping. A heavy 
pressure, by means of weights, was then put upon 
them whilst moist, and the gummy juice thus forced 
out caused the whole, when dry, to unite in one uni¬ 
form sheet. Paper, within a century from the present 
time, was thus manufactured in the Island of Mada¬ 
gascar. 
In Syria, the plant is called El Baber, from which is 
easily to be discerned the derivation of the classic name 
Papyrus, and our own word Paper. 
In the 16th volume of the “ Archaeologia,” Mr. Hamil¬ 
ton gives a very interesting account of the mode adopted 
for unfolding, without injury, an ancient roll of 
Egyptian Papyrus, found inclosed in asphalt with a 
mummy at Thebes. This was in the year 1812, but it 
was reserved for a still more recent period to reveal the 
intensely interesting contents of these Rolls. 
As an example, we may epitomise the contents of an 
essay read on the 20th of August, at the Congress of the 
British Archasological Association, held at Newport, in 
the Isle of Wight. This Essay was by the Rev. Mr. ! 
Heath, and related to the Jewish exodus, as illustrated I 
by certain Egyptian papyri translated within the present J 
year. In these papyri many points of the political J 
history of Egypt at the time of the exodus are treated ! 
of, and are strongly corroborative of the Mosaic account, i 
Thirteen hieratic papers have been published by the j 
British Museum, of which five more or less illustrated 
the exodus, and portrayed the events of the day and the 
customs of the country. From the narrative it would 
seem, that just previous to the exodus Rameses was 
succeeded by his son Seti II., the old playfellow and 
reputed first cousin of Moses, but that Prince being 
addicted to intemperance, and being unable to curb the 
turbulent people of Palestine, who had been subdued 
by Rameses the Great, retired for thirteen years to 
Ethiopia, leaving the government of Egypt in the 
hands of Meneptah. At that time the Jews appeared 
to have been engaged upon some extensive fortifications, 
under the superintendence of a naval officer, and a 
high Egyptian scribe, named Euna, appeared as mim- 
