Natural History.

NOTICES FOR JULY, 1854.

BY S. HEREMAN.

"'Tis glorious summer, and the brilliant sun Looks down in splendour on the earth below; Lakes, meadows, mountains, glisten in his glow,

And triumph in the smile which they have won.
Grandeur and rich magnificence appear

Profusely scattered with indulgent hand;
And man, for whom these benefits were planned,
Blesses the God whose wonders shine so clear.
Then say not, discontented one, that earth

Contains no image to allure the soul

To gladness. Awake, and listen to the mirth
Of birds, and catch refinement from the
whole;

So shall the heart, made liberal and free,
Exult and bound with generous ecstacy."

JULY, the Saxon hay-month, is commonly the hottest month in the year. The vegetable kingdom is now in full glory; more plants are now in bloom than in any other period of the summer. The enchanter's nightshade may be found in damp, shady situations. Several species of duck and club rush, pond weed, water parsnip, rush, water dropwort, water-plantain, bladder-wort, reed, brook weed, water starwort, and charads, may all be found plentifully in marshes, rivulets, and stagnant pools. This is an important month for observing the different grasses, most of which are in flower. The canary-grass, which, with many other kinds, may be found in uncultivated places, in meadows, and pasture fields; the cat's-tail, fox-tail, bent-grass, meadow-grass, quakinggrass, fescue-grass, pink-leaved hairgrass, cock's-foot prickling-grass, are now abundant. On sandy banks-several species of speedwell and bell-flowers, with multitudes of others, abound. On road sides-yarrow and mallows. Hedges are filled goose-grass or cleavers, and nettles. And in corn-fields the bluebottle, camomile, and bird-weed, are everywhere seen. This, too, is the month for the appearance of the puffball and the common mushroom; and towards the end truffles come into

season.

Amongst birds-the cuckoo is seldom heard later than the first week; the nightingale now seldom utters any other noise than croaking; the sky-lark, the wood-lark, and the thrush, still continue their song; as does also the black-cap, and the reed and sedge warblers; the stone-curlew whistles occasionally very late at night; the quail utters its two or three singular notes during the day, and through a greater part of the night. Young bullfinches fly, and young partridges may be seen running in every direction.

Insects are sporting in myriads on every hand. Gardens and fields swarm with butterflies during the day, and with moths during the night. The tigermoth now appears; the humming-bird moth may be seen mornings and evenings, darting from flower to flower with something of the swiftness of its feathered namesake of the tropics; also the gamma-moth may be found both in fields and gardens; in long grass and strawberry beds is the large yellowunderwing moth. Numbers also of ichneumonidæ now fly about in search of caterpillars in which to lay their eggs. The hoary-beetle is to be seen; and, towards the end, the four-spotted carrion-beetle may be observed in the evenings, hovering under hedges or in thick woods, searching for dead animals. Cattle flies-two species of which resemble the common house fly-now begin to torment horses and other animals. The harvest bug and the midge become very troublesome; and the great horse-fly appears. Glow-worms almost cease to emit their light after the middle of the month; and cockchafers are very numerous, feeding upon timber

trees.

Sacred Botany.

BY SAMUEL HEREMAN.

THE RUSH, BULRUSH, AND PAPER REED.

(Second article.)

THE first mention in Scripture of the bulrush (goma) is in connection with the preservation of the infant Moses, described in Exodus ii. Of the race of monarchs who successively oppressed the Israelites during the period when this interesting circumstance took place, we know little; yet, imperfect as is our knowledge of Egyptian history, it is pretty clear that the descendants of Israel inhabited for many years the fertile delta (called the "Land of Goshen") which lay on the eastern side of the Nile, in the Heliopolis, or On-nome, and had there prospered exceedingly under (as is supposed by Mr. Wilkins and others) the mild and glorious reigns of Osirtisen the First, and his immediate successors, Amung-m-gori (perhaps Sesostris the Great) and Osirtisen the Second.† Un

The previous article will be found in the Magazine for November, 1853, p. 446.

According to Herodotus and other ancient writers, Sesostris the Great (Sesothis was his Egyp tian name) began to reign over Egypt about 1700 years B.C., and reigned fifty years; he was a man of great stature, nearly seven feet high, and is supposed to be the third sovereign of the Theban or Diospolitan dynasty; the first is thought to be

der the government of the first of these monarchs, the patriarch Joseph was sold into Egypt to Potiphar, an honourable person in the Egyptian Court. After a lapse of time, those remarkable overflowings of the Nile took place which appear to have continued during seven successive years, and to have so fertilised the land, that it literally brought forth by handfuls. These prosperous years were succeeded by seven others, in which there was a total cessation of the overflowing of the river, arising, as is supposed, from a deficiency of rain in the countries through which the Nile passes; on which account the ground became parched and barren, causing a general and distressing dearth. Through the wise counsels of Joseph, however, the inhabitants were not only saved from perishing, but this very sterility proved a means of enriching and increasing Egypt's greatness.-(Gen. xli.) In consequence, this young man was elevated to the rank of governor or regent over Lower Egypt, which office he retained, with credit to himself and real benefit to his adopted country during the remainder of his life, which terminated, according to Dr. Hales, about 1792 years before the Christian era. During the continuance of the famine, Joseph's father and brothers, with their families, settled in "Goshen," and probably one of the brothers was appointed bailiff over the king's grazing farm-(Gen. xlvii. 6.)

As a proof of the amazing fertility of even modern Egypt, it may be noticed, that notwithstanding the little attention which has been paid for so many ages to agriculture, yet the surface of the Delta consists, at the present day, of a pure black soil, free from stones, of a tenacious and unctuous nature, and so rich that a crop of rice and a crop of barley can be obtained in one year from the same ground without the addition of

manure.

Until the period of the aforenamed famine, all landed property in that country was the absolute right of the owners; but the whole was at that time transferred to the government-(Gen. xlvii. 20.) The king, however, made no other use of this transfer than to let the land to the

Sesonchoris; the second, Osirtisen, who perhaps first took the name of Pharaoh; and the third, Resostoris. According to Jewish chronology, Joseph was sold into Egypt about 1727 B.C., or twenty-seven years before the supposed reign of Sesostris,-Joseph being, at that time, about sixteen years of age.

* Dr. Shaw estimates the alluvial matter deposited by the Nile during its overflow to be equal to the one hundred and twentieth part of the volume of water which the river pours into the sea, and that the deposit is so rich as to be available as manure. Where the deposit is abundant the people mingle sand with it to diminish its strength,

same owners, who paid into the king's treasury annually for its use, one-fifth of the produce as a tax-(Gen. xlvii. 26); and this custom was continued in successive ages. It was observed in the time of Moses. Herodotus, also, who flourished in the fifth century before the Christian era, as well as Strabo, testify to its existence in their days.

Dr.

Of the monarchs of this dynasty who reigned during the latter part of Joseph's life, very little is known; the first, Amung-m-gori (perhaps Sesostris the Great) appears, according to Mr. Wilkinson, to have been a great encourager of agriculture and mining, as, probably, was also Osirtisen the Second. Hales places a queen in this period, who, according to Herodotus, after destroying by stratagem a number of Egyptian nobles who had murdered her brother, put an end to her own existence; but whether the dynasty terminated with her, or was continued through several others, is uncertain, history being silent on the subject. This popular dynasty originated in Thebes or No (Ezekiel xxx. 14), a very large city, the building of which has been attributed to Osiris, but others think that to Busiris II. it owed much of its grandeur. It is certainly the most ancient and renowned of any city in Egypt, and might probably have been founded in the first instance by the earliest settlers, Mizraim and his family. The original name of it was Diospolis, or the City of Jupiter, on account of its being devoted to the worship of that imaginary deity. This city was the metropolis of the country of Egypt, far eclipsing all the metropolitan cities which arose in Middle and Lower Egypt.

Of the sovereigns which succeeded this dynasty, no certain accounts are known, but it is generally believed that at its close the new king that knew not Joseph arose (Exodus i. 8), commencing a series of oppressions, which were continued without mitigation through several consecutive reigns. Judging from the tenor of Scripture, it would seem the Israelites and many of the original inhabitants were disinherited, and placed

The Egyptians attributed the arts of agriculture to Osiris, one of their earliest kings, who is said to have been killed by his brother, and his wife, Isis, instituted his worship. Perhaps this is only a tradition of the first settlers in those parts. A bull or bull-calf was dedicated to him as the inventor of agriculture, and probably the plough. It was feigned that his soul passed into a bull that was black, that had a square mark on the forehead, an eagle on the back, and a white crescent on the side. Such an one was treated as a very god, and when he died all Egypt mourned until another was found, when the country was again filled with rejoicing.

Ancient History of Egypt.

Fig. 1.-Flowering Head of Papyrus. -(Exodus xii.) This exode is supposed by Dr. Hales to have taken place in the reign of Ahmos, Ames, or Amasis-Moses being at that time about eighty years of age.

The second notice of this plant in Scripture is in Job viii. 11, where Baldad or Bildad, the Shuhite, is described as reasoning with the afflicted patriarch, and asks him whether the goma (papyrus, fig. 1) can grow without water? Job, in his reply, describes the rapid loss of his comforts and hopes in three distinct figures -the speed of a posto

with letters; the st flight of an eagle

Behemoth as one of the mighty works of creation, yet making his bed amongst the coverts of the reeds (papgrus) and fens. Isaiah, when foretelling the calamities about to fall upon Egypt, describes these troubles under the figure of the rivers being dried up, and the sedge and paper reeds (gona) withering; and the same prophet, when speaking of swift sailing ships, calls them vessels of bulrushes (goma).

Besides the testimony of Holy Writ, every writer of antiquity furnishes information respectting the purposes to which this useful plant was applied. Herodotus, in his Euterpe, cap. 96, gives a tolerable account of the ships commonly used on the Nile in his day, which the Egyptians called "Baris;" and the same kind of boat is almost the only description used at the present time in Abyssinia, and there called "Tancoæ." These vessels passing so swiftly over the water when the wind was fair, or when impelled by paddles or oars, are alluded to both in Job and Isaiah,* The method of building these ships and boats consisted in cutting planks of the Egyptian thorn (Acacia Nilotica, fig. 2,) of about three feet in length. These were so placed as to overlap each other, much in the same manner as similar work is performed in the present day; the planks were

passed through the keel, the mast was formed of the thorn, and the sails of the papyrus-stalks, split and neatly woven together, giving the appearance, when completed, of fig. 3. The same author also describes vessels made of a framework of osiers and covered with skins, as sailing from Armenia to Babylon.*

Theophrastus furnishes similar information, telling us that the Egyptians make their boats of papyrus, and weave sails and ropes with the stalks of the plants (lib. iv. cap. 9); and Diodorus Siculus (Bib. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 17) confirms this information. And that there is no mistake in the papyrus being the plant made use of, Strabo concisely but accurately described it as a slender rod bearing a head of hairs in the form of a panicle at the top (Georg., lib. xvi). And Lucan, the poet, says, when the Nile overflows, the Memphian boat is constructed of the thirsty paper reed (lib. iv. 136).

Amongst their first ideas of ship-building, they would be likely to tie bundles of wood or papyrus together, and then, sitting upon them, would paddle themselves in whatever direction they pleased. That this was their contrivance, the discovery of a curious Mosaic pavement in the celebrated Temple of Fortune at Præneste, and now in the Barberini in Rome,t plainly testifies. The figure represents a man sitting across two bundles of paper reeds tied together, having in his hand a short double paddle, with which he propelled himself forward, his legs serving for oars (fig. 4). And Denon relates that the people in Upper Egypt often passed up and down the Nile by similar means, even as late as the time in which he wrote (Voyage dans Egypt). Isaac Casaubon also remarks, that the same practice is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. A similar rude cony trivance is mentioned by Belzoni, who relates, in page 62 of his work, that he

At what period navigation was first practised in Egypt it is not easy to say, but the first ship from that country of which we have any record, arrived in Greece 1512 years before the Christian era; but long prior to that time the Herod. Clio, c. 194.

"crossed to the island of Elephantine in a ferry boat, made of branches (fronds) of palm trees, fastened together with small cords, and covered on the outside with a mat, pitched all over." This testimony, exactly agrees with what we should con† Monfaucon's Antiquities, vol. xiv.

ceive to be the next advance in the art of ship-building; the bundles of papyrus would be tied securely together at each end, so as to give it the appearance of a canoe, and then the whole would either be daubed over with pitch or bitumen, or else covered with skins or closely woven mats. That the above testimonies are correct, other figures found at Præneste serve to prove.

Achilles Tatius states that these boats were not larger than a person could carry on his shoulder, so that if there was a deficiency of water, they carried

represented as carrying the sacred ox, a visible representation of Osiris, the presiding Deity of their temples, the genius of production and preservation. An annual festival was also held in honour of this sacred ship (De Isido et Osirida, p. 358). The outer shell or hulk of this vessel was composed of rough pieces of wood, securely joined and fastened by four other pieces; others were then fixed across, and formed the deck; the interstices were well plugged with papyrus, and then the whole was pitched and tarred over, to prevent the

them to where there was a sufficient depth of water to float them. Heavier vessels would be unsuitable for the Nile, as in many places the mud approaches so near the surface (Ach. Tat., lib. iv. p. 248).

Bruce describes, in his Travels in Africa (v. p. 6), the boat used by the Abyssinians, which exactly agrees with Pliny's account of those of Egypt. The plants used are tied firmly together, a piece of acacia tree being put in the bottom for a keel, to which the plants are joined; they are then gathered up at the stem and stern, and the ends tied fast there;-the vessel then resembles fig. 5.

The larger vessels and ships of burden also would at first have only a keel of thorn tree, and the sides of the paper reeds. Afterwards the frame-work would altogether consist of wood, having the joints and crevices calked with papyrus. Belzoni's account of the boat that he hired to carry him over the lake Moris, corresponds with the above description, being, according to Herodotus, like that called by the ancients " Baris," or "Boat of Charon," which was the vessel in which the Egyptians carried their dead to the place of burial, and also for other purposes still more sacred, as appears in all the hieroglyphics of Egypt. According to Plutarch, it was used in all sacred rites, and is frequently

possibility of water entering (Belzoni, p. 380). This vessel, when finished, appeared like fig. 6.

Thus the united testimony of all ancient writers agrees with that of the Bible, as to the value and usefulness of the paper reed or bulrush, and serves to confirm the oft-repeated assertion, that the weeds which choke up our rivers, and beset the pathways on which we tread, are either

important as connecting links in creation, or may be converted into uses valuable either in the arts or manufac tures of life; so richly are we provided for in this life, as well as for that which is to come, by Him who first spake the world into existence, and still upholds all things by the word of his power. "Thou art the source and centre of all minds, Their only point of rest, Eternal Word! From thee departing, we are lost, and rove At random, without honour, hope, or end. From thee is all that soothes the life of man, His high endeavour, and his glad success, His strength to suffer, and his will to serveThou art, of all thy gifts, thyself the crown."