the famous reed from which was made the far-famed paper of Egypt. Before entering on the description of the papyrus, it is natural to lay a word or two on the opinion generally received in Europe concerning the lots of this plant. Supposing this lot possible, the date of it must be fixed at no distant period; for it is not 200 years since Guilandin and Prosper Alpin observed the papyrus on the banks of the the Nile. Guilandin saw the inhabitants of the country eating the inferior and succulent part of the stem in the manner of the ancients; a fact which alone shows it to be the papyrus, and of which other travellers seem not to have availed themselves. This practice, together with those related by Profer Alpin, are sufficient to convince us, that this plant is not wholly useless, although it is not now employed in the fabrication of paper. The alteration on the soil of Egypt, and on the methods of agriculture, have in all probability rendered this plant less common; but caules altogether local could not occasion the destruction of the papyrus, especially as its residence in the marshes would prevent their operation. But it is needless to reason from probabilities or analogy: Mr Bruce not only saw the papyrus growing both in Egypt and Abyssinia, but actually made paper of it in the manner in which it was made by the ancients. He tells us likewise, that, far from any part of it being useless, the whole plant is at this day used in Abyssinia for making boats, a piece of the acacia tree being put in the bottom to serve as a keel. That such were the boats of ancient Egypt, we know from the testimony of Pliny, who informs us, that the plants were first sewed together, and then gathered up at stem and stern, and tied fast to the keel: "Conferitur bibula Memphis cumba papyro."

"The bottom, root, or woody part of this plant was likewise of several uses before it turned absolutely hard; it was chewed in the manner of liquorice, having a considerable quantity of sweet juice in it. This we learn from Dioscorides; it was, I suppose, chewed, and the sweetness sucked out in the same manner as is done with sugar cane. This is still practised in Abyssinia, where they likewise chew the root of the Indian corn, and of every kind of cyperus: and Herodotus tells us, that about a cubit of the lower part of the stalk was cut off, and roasted over the fire, and eaten.

"From the scarcity of wood, which was very great in Egypt, this lower part was likewise used in making cups, moulds, and other necessary utensils; we need not doubt, too, one use of the woody part of this plant was, to serve for what we call boards or covers for binding the leaves, which were made of the bark; we know that this was anciently one use of it, both from Alcaeus and Anacreon."

The papyrus, says Pliny, grows in the marshes of Egypt, or in the stagnant places of the Nile, made by the flowing of that river, provided they are not beyond the depth of two cubits. Its roots are tortuous, and in thickness about four or five inches: its stem is triangular, rising to the height of ten cubits. Profer Alpin gives it about fix or seven cubits above the water; the stem tapers from the bottom, and terminates in a point. Theophrastus adds, that the papyrus carries a top or plume of small hairs, which is the thyrsus of Pliny. Guilandin informs us, that its roots throw to the right and left a great number of small fibres, which support the plant against the violence of the wind, and against the waters of the Nile. According to him, the leaves of the plant are obtuse, and like the typha of the marshes. Mr Bruce, on the other hand, affirms us, that it never could have existed in the Nile. "Its head (says he) is too heavy; and in a plain country the wind must have had too violent a hold of it. The stalk is small and feeble, and withal too tall; the root too short and slender to stay it against the violent prelude of the wind and current; therefore I do constantly believe it never could be a plant growing in the river Nile itself, or in any very deep or rapid river;" but in the caliphs or places where the Nile had overflowed and was stagnant.

The Egyptians made of this plant paper fit for writing (fee PAPER), which they call βαλαρ or phluria, and also καρτα, and hence the Latin charta; for in general the word charta is used for the paper of Egypt.

The papyrus was produced in so great quantities on the banks of the Nile, that Cairodorus (lib. xi. 30.) compares it to a forest. There, says he, rises to the view, this forest without branches, this thicket without leaves, this harvest of the waters, this ornament of the marshes. Profer Alpin is the first who gives us a plate of the papyrus, which the Egyptians call berdi. This corresponds in some degree with the description of the plant mentioned by Theophrastus; but the best drawing of it has been given by Mr Bruce.

The ancient botanists placed the papyrus among the graminous plants or dog grass; ignorant of the particular kind to which it belonged, they were contented to specify it under the name of papyrus, of which there were two kinds, that of Egypt, and that of Sicily. The moderns have endeavoured to show, that these two plants are one and the same species of cyperus. It is under this genus that they are found in the catalogues and descriptions of plants published since the edition of Morrison's work, where the papyrus is called cyperus niloticus vel Syriacus maximus papyraceus.

In the manuscripts of the letters and observations of M. Lippi physician at Paris, who accompanied the envoy of Louis XIV. to the emperor of Abyssinia, we find the description of a cyperus which he had observed on the banks of the Nile in 1704. After having described the flowers, he says that many ears covered with young leaves are supported by a pretty long pedicle; and that many of those pedicles, equally loaded and coming from one joint, form a kind of parafol. The disk of this parafol is surrounded with a quantity of leaves which form a crown to the stem which supports it. The item is a pretty long prism, the corners of which are a little rounded; and the leaves, not at the top but at the side, are formed like the blade of a sword; the roots are black and full of fibres; and this plant is called cyperus Niliacus major, umbella multiplici.

The fame Lippi describes another kind which rises not so high: the item and leaves correspond with the former, but the ears form rather a kind of head than any thing like the spreading of an umbrella; this head was very soft, shining, and gilded, rich and airy, much loaded, supported by pedicles which were joined together at the bottom like the knitting of a parafol. It is called by him cyperus Niliacus major aurea, divisio panicula. These two kinds of cyperus have a marked resemblance in their leaves, their stem, their foliage, and the marshy places where they grow. The only difference consists in their size, and in the position of the ears, which serve to distinguish them; and they seem to bear a resemblance to the papyrus and the fari, described described by ancient authors. The first is perhaps the papyrus, and the second the fari; but this is only conjecture.

The papyrus, which grew in the waters, is said to have produced no seed; but this Mr Bruce very properly calls an absurdity. "The form of the flower (says he) sufficiently indicates, that it was made to resolve itself 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 had to protect it from the violent hold the wind must have had 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 prevent injury from the wind getting in between them." Its plume was composed of slender pedicles, very long, and somewhat like hair, according to Theophrastus. The same peculiarity exists in the papyrus of Sicily; and the fame is found to exist in another kind of papyrus sent from Madagascar by M. Poivre, correspondent of the Academy of Sciences.

It is impossible to determine whether the papyrus of Sicily was used in any way by the Romans. In Italy it is called papero, and, according to Cefalpin, pipero. This papyrus of Sicily has been cultivated in the garden of Pisa; and if we can depend on the authority of Cefalpin, who himself examined the plant, it is different from the papyrus of Egypt.

The papyrus, says he, which is commonly called pipero in Sicily, has a longer and thicker stem than the plant cyperus. It rises sometimes to four cubits; the angles are obtuse, and the item at the base is surrounded with leaves growing from the root; there are no leaves on the stem even when the plant is at the greatest perfection, but it carries at the top a large plume which resembles a great tuft of dishevelled hairs; this is composed of a great number of triangular pedicles, in the form of reeds; at the extremity of which are placed the flowers, between two small leaves of a reddish colour like the cyperus. The roots are woody, about the thickness of reeds, jointed, and they throw out a great number of branches which extend themselves in an oblique direction. These are scented somewhat like the cyperus, but their colour is a lighter brown; from the lower part issue many small fibres, and from the higher a number of stems shoot up, which in proportion as they are tender contain a sweet juice.

The plume of the papyrus of Sicily is pretty well described in a short account of it in the second part of the Museum de Boccone. This plume is a tuft or assemblage of a great number of long slender pedicles, which grow from the same point of division, are disposed in the manner of a parafol, and which carry at the top three long and narrow leaves, from which issue other pedicles, shorter than the former, and terminating in several knots of flowers. Micheli, in his Nova Plantarum Genera, printed at Florence 1728, has given an engraving of one of the long pedicles in its natural length: it is surrounded at the base with a case of about one inch and a half in height; towards the extremity it carries three long and narrow leaves, and four pedicles, to which are fixed the knots of flowers. Every pedicle has also a small case surrounding its base. In short, we find in the Grofio Graphia of Scheuchzer a very particular description of the plume of a kind of cyperus, which appears to be a Sicilian plant. From this account it appears that the papyrus of Sicily is well known to botanists. It were to be wished that we had as particular a description of the papyrus of Egypt; but meanwhile it may be observed, that these two plants have a near affinity to one another; they are confounded together by many authors; and, according to Theophrastus, the fari and the papyrus nidotica have a decided character of resemblance, and only differ in this, that the papyrus sends forth thick and tall stems, which being divided into slender plates, are fit for the fabrication of paper; whereas the fari has small stems, considerably shorter, and altogether useless for any kind of paper.

The papyrus, which served anciently to make paper, must not be confounded with the papyrus of Sicily, found also in Calabria; for, according to Strabo, the papyrus was to be found in no place excepting Egypt and India. The greatest part of botanists have believed that the Sicilian plant is the same with the fari of Theophrastus; others have advanced that the papyrus of Egypt and the fari were the same plant in two different stages of its existence, or considered with respect to the greater or less height, which, according to them, might depend on the qualities of the soil, the difference of the climate, or other accidental causes. In proof of this, it is maintained, that there is an essential difference between the papyrus growing in the waters and the same plant growing on the banks of rivers and in marshes. The first of these has thick and tall stems, and a plume in the form of a tuft of hair very long and slender, and without any seed: the second differs from the first in all these particulars; it has a shorter and more slender stem, its plume is loaded with flowers, and of consequence it produces seed. In whatever way we consider these facts, it is sufficient for us to know, that the difference between the papyrus and the fari neither depends on climate, nor soil, nor on situation. The plants whose difference depended on these circumstances, both grew in Egypt, and were both employed in the manufacture of paper. But it is an established fact, that the fari cannot be employed for this purpose.

Finally, the papyrus of Sicily began to be known by botanists in 1570, 1572, 1583, at which periods the works of Lobel, of Guilandin, and of Cefalpin, first appeared. The ancients had no manner of knowledge of this plant. Pliny makes no mention of it in his Natural History; from which it is evident that it was neither used in Rome nor in Sicily. If he had seen this plant, he must have been struck with its resemblance to the papyrus and the fari, as they were described by Theophrastus; and since he gives a particular description of these last mentioned, he would have most naturally hinted at their conformity to the Sicilian papyrus.

Among many dried plants collected in the East Indies by M. Poivre, there is a kind of papyrus very different from that of Sicily. It carries a plume composed of a considerable tuft of pedicles, very long, weak, slender, and delicate, like single threads, terminating most frequently in two or three small narrow leaves, without any knot of flowers between them; hence this plume must be altogether barren. Those pedicles or threads are furnished with a pretty long membranous case, in which they are inserted; and they issue from the same point of direction, in the manner of a parafol. The plume, at its first appearance, is surrounded with leaves like the radii of a crown. The stem which supports it is, according to M. Poivre, about ten feet in height, where there is two feet under water; it is of a triangular form, but the angles are rounded; its thickness is about the size of a walking staff which fills the hand.

The interior substance, although soft and full of fibres, is solid, and of a white colour. By this means the stem possesses a certain degree of strength, and is capable of resistance. It bends without breaking; and as it is extremely light, it serves in some sort for a cane: The fame M. Poivre used no other during a residence of several months at Madagascar. This item is not of equal thickness in its whole length; it tapers insensibly from the thickest part towards the top. It is without knots, and extremely smooth. When this plant grows out of the waters, in places simply moist, it is much smaller, the stems are lower, and the plume is composed of shorter pedicles or threads, terminating at the top in three narrow leaves, a little longer than those at the plume, when the plant grows in the water. From the base of these leaves issue small knots of flowers, arranged as they are in the cyperus; but these knots are not elevated above the pedicles, they occupy the centre of the three leaves, between which they are placed, and form themselves into a small head. The leaves which spring from the root and the lower part of the stem resemble exactly those in the cyperus. This plant, which the inhabitants call fanga-fanga, grows in great abundance in their rivers and on their banks, but particularly in the river Tarta, near the Roule-point in Madagascar. The inhabitants of these cantons use the bark of this plant for mats; they make it also into sails, into cordage for their fishing houses, and into cords for their nets.

This kind of papyrus, so lately discovered, and different from the papyrus of Sicily by the disposition of its flowers, shows, that there are two kinds of the cyperus which might easily be confounded with the papyrus of Egypt; whether we consider, on the one hand, to what purposes the inhabitants of the places where they grow have made them subservient; or, on the other compare their form, their manner of growth, and the points in which they resemble each other. This comparison can be easily made from the accounts which Pliny and Theophrastus gave of the papyrus of Egypt, and by the figure and description given by Profer Alpin, after having observed the plant on the banks of the Nile. But if we can depend on the testimony of Strabo, who affirms that the papyrus is found nowhere but in Egypt and in India, it is perhaps possible that the papyrus of the isle of Madagascar is the same with that of Egypt.

Whatever truth may be in this conjecture, the inhabitants of this island have never derived from it those advantages which have immortalized the papyrus of Egypt. They have not made that celebrated paper, quo usu maxime humanitas, viuâ, confiat et memoria. This remarkable expression of Pliny not only characterizes the Egyptian paper, but every kind which art and industry have substituted in its place.