A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton.

  • John Barton
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    61/120 (page 51)
    are brought chiefly from the island of Socotra, in the Arabian Sea, near the Straits of Babel- mandel. In the narrow, but fruitful valley of the Nile, we find several new vegetable productions. Among the most remarkable of these is the Papyrus, a species of reed which was employed by the Egyptians in early times for making paper. For this purpose, the inner rind of the stem being cut into strips, and laid together somewhat like matting, was pressed with a weight till the whole adhered together. The Papyrus is several feet in height, and bears a sort of tuft or feathery head at the top of the stalk: it grows chiefly in marshy places. In Egypt also grows a species of Water Lily, called the Lotus*, of which both the root and the seeds are eatable; and from Egypt was intro- duced into our gardens the Mignonette. This country was once regarded as the granary of Europe, and is still remarkable for its fertility; producing large crops of Rice, Wheat, Barley, and some other species of grain unknown among us; while Oats are equally unknown in Egypt; the horses, as in all parts of the East, being fed upon Barley. Egypt, like the plain of Lom- bardy, owes much of its fertility to a system of * Njmphsea Lotus. D 2