1. Common Cane. — In most of the passages of the Old Testament the word kaneh seems to be applied strictly to reeds of different kinds growing in water — that is, to the hollow stems or culms of grasses, which aro usually weak, easily shaken about by wind or by water, fhtgile, and breaking into sharp-pointed splin- ters. Thus, in 1 Kings xiv, 15, " As a reed is shaken in the water;'' Job xl, 21, '^He lieth hi the covert of the reed;" Isa. xix, 6, ^ And they shall turn the riv- ers tai away; and the reeds and flags shall wither.'* Also in ch. xxxv, 7 ; while in 2 Kings xviii, 21 ; Isa. xxxvi, 6 ; and Esek. xxix, 7, there is reference to the weak and fh^^e nature of the reed : '* Lo, thou trost- est in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it.*'
The Greek word KaXafWQ appears to have been con- sidered the proper equivalent for the Hebrew bameky being the term used by Matthew (xii, 20) when qaot- ing the words of Isaiah (xlii, 8), "A bruised reed shall he not break." The Greek word Latinized is weU luiown in the forms of calamus and eulmtis. Both seem to have been derived from the Arabic kalm^ signify- ing a **reed" or "pen," and forming numerous com- pounds, with the latter signification, in the languages of the East. It also denotes a weaver's reed, and even cuttings of trees for planting or grafting. Or they may all be derived fW>m the Sanscrit kcUm, hav- ing the same significarion. The German halm^ and the English haulm, usually applied to the straw or stems of grasses, would seem to have the same origin. The Greek KaXafwg and the lAtin calamus were used with as wide a signification as the Oriental kalm^ and denoted a reed, the stalk or stem of com, ot any thing made therefh>m, as a pen, an arrow, a reed pipe. Ka- Xafiog is also applied to any plant which is neither shrub, bu^h (pXrf), nor tree (it'vSpov) (see Liddell and Scott*8 Gre^ Lex.), So calamus means any twig, sprig, or scion (Pliny, xvi, 14, 24). Tho term KoXa- fiog occurs very frequently in the New Testament, and apparently with the same latitude of meaning : thus, in the sense of a reed or culm of a grassy Bfatt. xi, 7 ; Luke vii, 24, " A reed shaken by the wind ;" of a pen in 8 John 18, *' But I will not with pen and ink write unto thee ;" Matt xxvii, 29, " Put a reed in his right hand;" ver. 80, **Took the reed and smote him on the head ;" and in Mark xv, 19, it may mean a reed or twig of any kind. So also in Matt, xxvii, 48, and Mark xv, 36, when it is said that they filled a sponge with .vinegar, and put it on a reed, while in the piarallel passage, John xix, 29, it is said that they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon %«op, and put it to his mouth ; from which it is probable that the term KaXafio^ was applied by both the Evan^ gelists to the stem of the plant named hyssop, what- ever this may have been, in like manner as Pliny
CANE
IS
CANISIUS
(zziv, 14, 76) applies the tenn cakmm to the stem of abrunble.
In Uter times the term cane has been applied more particalarlj to the stems of the Calanuu rotanff, and other species of ratan canes, which we have good grounds for believing were unknown to the ancients, notwithstanding the opinion of Sprengel (^Hitt. Bei Herb, i, 171), **Ctesias makes two kinds of * calamus,* the male without pith, the female with it, the latter without doubt the Calamus roicmgy the other our BoM" Imaca, as Pliny restates (xvi, 86)." See Flag.
2. CuUimted Coim.— Of this Dioscorides describes the different kinds in his chapter irtpl leaXafiov (i, 114). 1. KaXafiOQ 6 va<n6Q^ or the Arwndo farctOy of which arrows are made (^1 rundo arenaria f). 2. The female, of which reed pipes were made (A, domax f), 8. Hol-
Artmdo Donax,
low, with frequent knots, fitted for writing, probably a species of 8<Mxkarum, 4. Thick and hollow, grow- ing in rivers, which is called donaXy and also Cupria {Arumdo donax), 5. PkroffmiUs (Artmdo pkraffmUes), slender, light-colored, and well known. 6. The reed caUed Pkleos (^Antndo ampdodumos CynOn), (Flora N«g>ol. L xiL) These are all described (1. c.) unme- diately before the papyrus, while KoKafAOC ipiafmrucog is described in a different part of the book, namely, in ch. 17, along with spices and perfumes. The Arabs deecfibe the different kinds of reed under the head of Kmb, or KuMtub^ of which they give Kalamut as the qmonymons Greek term.
From the context of several of the above passages of Scripture in which kaneh is mentioned, it is evi- dent that it was a plant growing in water ; and we have seen, ftom the meaning of the word in other lan- guages, that it must have been applied to one of the true reeds, as, for instance, Arwido jEgyptiaca (per- haps only a variety of A, donax), growing on the banks of the Kile. In the New Testament icdXa/iog seems to be applied chiefly to plants growing in dry and even barren situations, as in Luke vii, 24, ** What went ye into the wilderness to see— a reed shaken by the wind ?" To such passages, some of the species of reed-like grasses, with slender stems and light fioccu- knt infloreacenoe, formerly referred to Saccharum^ but now separated as distinct genera, are well anited. See