In the New Test, the corresponding Greek word, kci- Xafioc, may signify the " stalk" of plants (Mark xv, 36 ; Matt, xxvii, 48, that of the hyssop, but this is doubtful), or "a reed" (Matt, xi, 7; xii, 20; Luke vii, "24 ; Mark xv, 19), or a " measuring-rod" (Rev. xi, 1 ; xxi, 15, 10), or a "pen" (3 John 13).
Strand (Flor. Palasst. p. 28-30) gives the following names of the reed plants of Palestine: Saccharum offi- cinale, Cyperus papyrus (Papyrus antiquoruni), C. ro- tundas, and C. esculentus, and A rundo scriptoria ; but no doubt the species are numerous. See Bove (Voyage en Palest., Annal. des Scienc. Nat. 1834, p. 165) : " Dans les deserts qui environnent ces montagnes j'ai trouve plu- sieurs Saccharum, Milium arundinaceum et plusieurs Cyperace's." The A rundo donax, the A . ^Egyptiaca (?) of Bove (ibid. p. 72), is common on the banks of the Nile, and may perhaps be " the staff of the bruised reed" to which Sennacherib compared the power of Egypt (2 Kings xviii, 21 ; Ezek. xxix, G, 7). See also Isa. xlii, 3. The thick stem of this reed may have been used as walking-staves by the ancient Orientals; per- haps the measuring-reed was this plant. At present the dry culms of this huge grass are in much demand for fishing-rods, etc. See Mktrology.
Some kind of fragrant reed is occasionally denoted by the word kaneh (Isa. xliii, 24 ; Ezek. xxvii, 19 ; Cant. iv, 14), or more fully by kench bosem (Q'i"2 i"!3p) (see Exod. xxx, 23), or by kaneh hat-tob (niah FlSjJ) (Jer. vi, 20), which the A. V. renders " sweet cane," and " cal- amus." Whatever may be the substance denoted, it is certain that it was one of foreign importation, "from a far country" (Jer. vi, 20). Some writers (see Sprengel, Com. in Dioscor. i, xvii) have sought to identify the kaneh bosem with the Acorns calamus, the "sweet sedge," to which they refer the KaXafioc apiopariKoe. of Dioscorides (i, 17), the saXa/joc. tvcoSije. of Theo- phrastus (Hist. Plant, iv, 8, § 4), which, according to this last-named writer and Pliny (//. N. xii, 22), for- merly grew about a lake " between Libanus and anoth- er mountain of no note;" Strabo identities this with the Lake of Gennesaret (Geog. xvi, p. 755, ed. Kramer). Burckhardt was unable to discover any sweet-scented reed or rush near the lake, though he saw many tall reeds there. " High reeds grow along the shore, but I found none of the aromatic reeds and rushes mentioned by Strabo" (Syria, p. 319); but whatever may be the "fragrant reed" intended, it is certain that it did not grow in Syria, otherwise we cannot suppose it should be spoken of as a valuable product from a far country. Dr. Royle refers the KaXafioc aptouariKoe; of Dioscor- ides to a species of A ndropogon, which he calls A. ca- lamus aromaticus, a plant of remarkable fragrance, and a native of Central India, where it is used to mix with ointments on account of the delicacy of its odor (see Royle, Illustrations of Himalayan Botany, p. 425, t. 97). It is possible this may be the " reed of fragrance ;" but it is hardly likely that Dioscorides, who, under the term ffyoTi'Ot', gives a description of the Andropogon schce- nanthus, should speak of a closely allied species under a totally different name. See Cane.
" The beasts of the reeds," in Psa. lxviii. 30, margin, literally from the Hebrew, but rendered in the text
Andropogon schoenanthus.
of the A.V. "the company of spearmen," probably means the crocodiles. Yet for other interpretations see Rosen- m idler ad loc. Gesenius, on Isa. xxvii, 1, understands Babel. See Crocodile.
2. Wroth (rn"i^; Sept. r6 a\i to *Xwpoi> ttuv) is translated " paper-reed" in Isa. xix, 7, the only passage where the plural noun occurs. There is not the slightest authority for this rendering of the A. V., nor is it at all probable, as Celsius (Hierob. ii, 230) has remarked, that the prophet, who speaks of the paper-reed under the name gome in the preceding chapter (xviii, 2), should in this one mention the same plant under a totally dif- ferent name. " 'A roth," says Kimchi, "is the name to designate pot-herbs and green plants." The Sept. (as above) translates it by "all the green herbage." The word is derived from 'ardh, "to be bare," or "destitute of trees;" it probably denotes the open grassy land on the banks of the Nile; and seems to be allied to the Arabic \ira (locus apertus,spaliosus). Michaelis (Suppl. No. 1973), Rosenmuller (Schol. in Jes. xix, 7), Gesenius (Thesaur. s. v.), Maurer (Comment, s. v.), and Simon (Lex. Heb. s. v.) are all in favor of this or a similar explanation. Vitringa (Comment, iii Isaiam) was of opinion that the Hebrew term denoted the papyrus, and he has been followed by J. G. Unger, who has published a dissertation on this subject (I)e "11", hoc est de Papyro Frutice [Lips. 1731, 4to]). See Paper- reed.
3. In one passage (Jer. Ii, 32) agdm (C3X; Sept. cv- cm]pa,\ ulg. palus) is rendered "reed" (but elsewhere "pond" or "pool"), and is there thought to designate a stockade or fort enclosed by palisades.
II. Other Hebrew words representing, more or less accurately, various kinds of reedy plants are the fol- lowing: