which fed the Israelites in the Desert, with it, as to size and shape. It has been from most ancient times, and still continues to be, a favourite condiment in the East. It is an essential ingredient in the currystuff which flavours the dry rice of the poor pariah, as well as in the dishes of his Mussulman lord and his European master. All alike chew it, or hold it in the mouth, for the sake of its pleasant flavour; and the confectioners of Europe, by encrusting it with sugar, form it into a delicious comfit.

The Coriander is an annual umbelliferous plant, native to all the countries bordering on the Levant, and to the plains of Tartary. In Pliny's time, the best, both for medicine and seasoning, was brought to Rome from Egypt; and now a good deal is imported into England from the Mediterranean. It thrives so well, however, with us, as to have become almost wild; and a good deal is cultivated in Suffolk, for the use of the apothecary, the confectioner, and the distiller.

COTTON.

Esther, i. 6.

CELSIUS devotes six pages of his second volume to show that the Hebrew Carpes (the Carbesa of the ancients, and the Persian Kirbas) means Cotton.

The scene of the history of Esther being in a country where Cotton, from time immemorial, has furnished the greater part of the national clothing, gives strong support to his opinion. If the Jews were not in the habit of cultivating Cotton before the great captivity, they probably brought the plant, and the method of cultivating it, from Babylon with them to Jewry, on their restoration. It is certain that they raised a sufficient quantity for the purposes of commerce in after times, for Pausanias speaks of the Cotton of Judea as being of a yellower hue than that of Egypt and other places.

The delicate veils spoken of by the ancient poets, as seeming to be of woven wind, and represented in some antique pictures and on several mummy-cases, could scarcely have been of linen, but were in all

likelihood of muslin ; and it appears that the neighbourhood of Jerusalem was celebrated for manufacturing veils of fine quality and elegant patterns.

If Celsius is right in reading Cotton in the text he quotes, then the hangings of the palace of Ahasuerus which was named Shushan, or the Lily, were of white Cotton and blue, fastened with cords of fine flax or Cotton, and purple, to rings of silver.

The drapery of much of the Egyptian sculpture seems intended to represent some striped elastic stuff; and we know that extreme whiteness was one of the qualities required in the dresses of the Egyptian priests and priestesses. That such elastic striped stuffs were anciently made in Egypt, we have strong presumptive proof, in the fact that our dimity takes its name from the town of Damietta, whence it was first brought into the western markets of Europe.

The Cotton cultivated in Malta is of the herbaceous kind, and is the deepest coloured I ever saw; the cloth made from it being rather brown, than of the fleshy tint of the Chinese nankeens: but neither can compare with the beauty of the cloths woven from the white-woolled plant.

The Cotton seeds yield a considerable quantity of oil; and it has more than once happened, that stray seeds, having been left in Cotton bales, have given out sufficient oil to take fire on the admission of air to the bale, and thus caused lamentable destruction of life and property, by consuming ships

at sea.