Papyrus, from which the term paper was derived, is the name of a celebrated plant, once extensively used by the Egyptians for making various articles of utility, such as baskets, shoes, cordage, and the like. Some writers state that of this plant the little ark was made, in which the parents of Moses exposed him upon the banks of the Nile, and of this it was that the most ancient paper was manufactured. Not as would now be customary, by first reducing it to a pulp, nor, indeed, in any way as resembling modern paper, except that in both, vegetable fibre is the basis. That a plant once so useful, and for ages in Egypt so commercially valuable, should have totally disappeared, being altogether unknown to modern botanists, appears scarcely credible; yet so it is. For the ancient descriptions of the papyrus, as a flag or bulrush, with a triangular stem that could barely be spanned, and which grew to the height of ten feet, or even considerably more, in the immense marshes occupying a large part of the surface of lower Egypt; a leafless wood, as it were, or as one writer describes it, a forest without branches, the bare stem being surmounted only by a head of long, thin, straight fibres, is certainly quite irreconcilable with the nature of the plant which now bears that name, and of which one of the stoutest growth has been very kindly furnished me by Sir W. J. Hooker, from the Royal Gardens at Kew. In the prophecy of Isaiah a very remarkable prediction occurs with reference to this plant. “The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.” Doubtless, we may believe that this prophecy has literally received its fulfilment. With reference to the mode in which the paper was manufactured from this plant, two distinct opinions have been handed down to us. One, that the epidermis being removed, the spongy part was cut into thin slices, which were steeped in the waters of the Nile, or in water slightly imbued with gum; after which two layers were placed one above another, carefully arranged in contrary directions, that is, lengthwise and breadthwise, which, after being dried, were finally smoothed and brought to a fit surface for receiving writing, by being rubbed with a tooth or piece of polished ivory.