26. The PAPYRUS is a sedge-like plant (Cyperus papyrus), which grows in watery places in Egypt, Syria, Sicily, and Madagascar.
It has a three-sided stem, many feet in height, which is terminated by a bushy head, consisting of a large and compound clustre of flowers.
From this plant the ancients made their paper; and the process of manufacturing it is described by Pliny, the Roman naturalist, to have been very simple. The inner rind of the stem was merely cut into strips, and laid in parallel and transverse rows; and these, on being heavily pressed with weights, adhered together. The substance thus formed, though of rude texture, was capable of being written upon; and there are many manuscripts still extant on paper of this description. The ancients also sometimes employed the sword-shaped leaves of this plant for writing upon. With the former a kind of ink was used; but on the latter the letters were formed by a metallic, pointed instrument, called by the Romans a stylus.
But the papyrus plant was not merely useful for writing upon. The inhabitants of the countries where it is found manufacture it, even to this day, into sail-cloth, mattresses, ropes, and sometimes even into wearing apparel. When the stems are compactly woven together, and plastered, externally, with a kind of resinous substance, so as to prevent the admission of water, they are made into boats. These, though they resemble great baskets in appearance, are of considerable use to the inhabitants. The "ark of bulrushes daubed with slime and pitch," in which the infant Moses was placed, is supposed, by the best commentators, to have been a boat made of this plant.
The floral thyrsus which was used to adorn the temples and statues of the gods, was a representation of the tuft of the papyrus.
DIGYNIA.
27. SUGAR is the concrete or crystallized juice of the sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum, Fig. 5), a plant, much cultivated both in the East and West Indies, which has a jointed stem eight or nine feet high, long and flat leaves of greenish yellow colour, and flowers in bunches.
The cultivation of the sugar-cane is pursued to great extent in the islands of the West Indies, where, about three centuries ago, it was first introduced from China, or some other parts of the East, and where it flourishes with great luxuriance, particularly in moist and rich ground.
The season for planting it commences about the beginning of August. This operation is performed by laying the canes in rows, in trenches formed for the purpose. Roots issue from each joint; and, in the course of nine or ten months, the stems which rise from these respective roots, and constitute the sugar crop, attain their perfect state. The saccharine juice is contained in a spongy pith with which the interior of the plant is filled.
When cut down, the leaves are thrown aside as of no use in the manufacture of sugar, and the stems or canes are divided into pieces, each about a yard in length. These are tied together in bundles, and conveyed to the sugar-mill; where they are bruised betwixt three upright wooden rollers covered with iron. The juice, which flows from them, is conducted, by canals, into a large vessel formed for receiving it. The quantity of juice prepared by some of these mills is upwards of ten thousand gallons in a day.