Ancient Egyptian Flora.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 443, 5 February 1890, Page 3

Ancient Egyptian Flora.

I Tixe National Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Bulak contains a very interestI ing collection of plants which have been I found in the catacombs and sepulchral I monuments of the country, says the ‘ Revne Scientifique.’ Dr. Schweinfurth was the first to study this ancient flora, which contains no example of a plant that does not grow to-day in the Nile valley. Nor does the most minute examination show the least difference between the vegetation which flourished fifty centuries ago and that of the present time. In some cases the colour of the flowers can be clearly distinguished, as, for instance, the purple larkspur, the red poppy, the reddish-brown saffron, and the blue lotus. The leaves of the water melon contain grains of chlorophyll perfectly visible in the microscope. All these were found in great numbers in the burial places of the fifteenth dynasty, 3000 years b.c., and in one tomb of the same time were some ears of barley. In later monuments were discovered mustard, flax, , cucumbers, lentils, pine cones, juniper berries, dates, hollyhocks, chrysanthemums, figs, olives, onions and grapes. Around the necks and upon the breasts of the mummies of 1100 b.c., were garlands of celery leaves and blue lotus flowers. In regard to the various specimens of grain discovered it may be added that no attempt to make them grow has ever succeeded, the plants having been subjected to great heat at the time of the embalming and burial, which, while it preserved them, destroyed their germinating power. The cases in which mummy-wheat is said to have been raised are due simply to the fraudulent mixture of modern with the ancient grains.