ARALIÆ.

a

(Ginseng.)

Panax Quinquefolium.

HE word occurs only in Ezek. xxvii. 17. The word translated "delicately" in Prov. xxix. 21, which is from the same root as that rendered pannag, expresses tenderness and delight, and is frequently used among the Rabbins in this sense. More than one author suggests the panax; and, as the reasons for the suggestion are good, I shall present them.

The plant is cultivated extensively in China and Chinese Tartary; and from Pliny it appears to have been as much valued by the ancients as it is at present by the Chinese. It was considered such a universal cure for ailments that some have supposed the modern word "panacea" to be derived from it. There is a panax found in North America, but far inferior to that of the East,-where there exists a variety so excellent in kind as to have been used by the ancient Italians as a potherb. Among the Chinese for more than a half-century past that variety of panax called ginseng was considered an antidote. to every poison, and efficacious in restoring health to the weak. It was described as a precious and delicious root, and in all these senses answers to the Rabbinical description of the pannag. In Ezekiel the pannag is associated with balsam, which was

used for many purposes; and, as the panax was of a similar character in many respects, and even chewed as a luxury, it is supposed that it might also appropriately be associated with balsam, honey, and oil, in the passage of the prophet.

I have given the above as the most probable supposition, provided that the pannag of Ezekiel is not the name of an ancient town noted for the excellence of its wheat, just as Minnith was. The termination of this word is an unusual one for towns; but in this respect it does not stand alone, for Ziklag is well established as the name of a town. The probabilities, however, are greater that the name is that of a plant, and of all plants the above seems most likely to have been the one indicated. The root is jointed, fleshy, and tapering, of a dark-yellowish tinge, somewhat stimulant, and slightly bitter.

CYPERACEÆ.

Cyperus Papyrus. Or has been supposed that Ethiopia was the native country of the papyrus, which naturally from thence descended the Nile into Egypt. It has been found in Italy and Greece; but, as Pliny says nothing of it when referring to those countries, it was probably introduced since the time in which he lived. It also grew along the Upper Jordan, from Paneas to the Lake of Tiberias, according to ancient writers. Its appearance is graceful, but singular; for its stem, sometimes rising to a height of twelve or even fourteen feet, is devoid of leaves and terminated with a beautiful plume rising immediately out of a parted cup or calyx. Near the roots there are sometimes delicate shoots, which, with the roots themselves, were used as food by the ancient Egyptians.

This reed is famous for the uses to which it has been applied in the arts. So far back as the time of Homer it was used for the manufacture of cordage,-as appears from a passage in the Odyssey. Boats were constructed of the stem, and sandals were made for the priests from the parts near the roots; the macerated fibres formed cords and ropes; and the plume at the top was used to crown the statues of the goddesses in the temples. The name "papyrus," which originated the English word "paper," suggests the most important use of

this reed, namely, for the manufacture of a material suitable to be written upon. The ancient name of this plant with the Egyptians was biblos, which gave rise to the name of the oldest book, the Bible, as the common name "papyrus" did to the modern "paper." According to Pliny, the method of forming sheets of paper from the reed was as follows. A part of the stem was cut off as long as the page of the intended. book. This section was then peeled or unfolded; for the rind of the reed is wrapped together as a little piece of paper would be if rolled between the fingers, and the forming of a page of papyrus was like the unrolling of such a piece of rolled paper. The papyrus, having been unrolled as near to the heart of the reed as possible, was cleaned and glued to other strips, till the desired size was obtained, additional strips having been pasted or glued across the face of the newly-formed page. The whole was then put beneath a smooth surface on which weights were placed, and left to flatten. Though some have attempted to form paper after this method in later times with but indifferent success, it must be remembered that an inexperienced and imperfect trial of one or two sheets cannot be compared with the constant and skilful practice of the ancients.

The delicate material often brought from China and India, called rice-paper, upon which such beautiful paintings can be executed, is not, as many suppose, formed of a rice paste, but is cut from the pith of a rush which grows abundantly upon the banks of the Ganges, and from a plant of the aralia family called Aralia papyrifera, or paper ivy, and is prepared very much in the same manner as paper was made from the

paper-reed of Egypt. Herodotus, in speaking of the introduction of letters into Greece by the Phoenicians, says that the Ionians used skins to write upon when the biblos was scarce, and called their books dipthera, or skins, because they were made of that material. Hence Attalus, King of Pergamus, who lived long after, only invented a method of smoothing and preparing skins for the purposes of writing. He thus became the inventor of parchment only so far as regards the quality, and was not, as some have thought, the first to suggest writing upon skins. This invention of Attalus was one of necessity, following upon the refusal of a certain Egyptian monarch to permit his subjects to export paper,—as some suppose, from a fit of commercial jealousy.

The word in the original translated "paper-reed" occurs in Isa. xix. 7, and is supposed by Celsius to refer to any grassy reed; and the word translated "bulrush" in Ex. ii. 3, Job viii. 11, and Isa. xviii. 2 and xxxv. 7, is thought to be the real and ancient name of the paper-reed. If so, then Moses's ark of bulrushes was constructed from the papyrus. This seems the more

From an

probable, since Isaiah xviii. 2 refers the vessels of bulrushes to Ethiopia, where the papyrus was a native reed. examination of the various passages just referred to, and in which the Hebrew word gome occurs, we may suppose that the paper-reed is meant. It is the most important reed,—is better suited to the construction of vessels, and is more easily. managed in making little articles not requiring much skill in formation. The general sentiment of the context in Isaiah to which we have referred, as alone properly containing the word