Relics of Past Ages.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1452, 11 September 1885, Page 2

Relics of Past Ages.

Dr George Schweinfurth the German explorer of Central Africa, who now resides in Kay pi, lias sent to Sir Joseph Hooker, director of the Kew Gardens, a long account of the plants contained in some wreaths fcound in the coffin of an Egyptian princess (mummy). They com prised lea vesofthe willow leaves of the date palm, cornpoppy flowers and corn flowers. Of the poppies Dr Schwein says that the inner portion are in a wonderful state of preservation. "Not a stamen not another is wanting 1 ; naj', one might almost say that not even a pollen grain is missing. Rarely are such perfect and well-preserved specimens of this fragile flower met with in herbaria. The colour, too, of the petals is maintained ina high degree as in the dried specimens of the present day. It is a dark brown red, that leaves a deep stain on the paper where the flowers have been soaked." We quote from a translation furnished to Nature. The princess at whose funeral these flowers were used lived about eleven centuries before the Christian era. Pine cone.«, which must have been employed as funeral offerings a thousand 'years earlier, have been found in a vault at Thebes.