Chapter X: Letter XIX: gives a definition of the ellipsis, which would be a (4)

Perhaps there is no point whatever, connected with Horticulture, of greater interest than that which forms the subject of this paper; it is the distant goal towards which we all are striving, but of which, alas! we have not as yet even caught a glimpse. The gardener is in possession of the powers by which he can bend the seasons to his will; he can dispel the frozen gloom of winter with the rich warm glow of the vintage; at his call the flowers of spring and summer start up beneath his feet, and his hothouses are filled with the luscious fruits of the torrid zone. All this he knows how to effect with an artificial climate; but he has no influence over the natural climate of his country, nor can he impart to the vegetation of warmer latitudes the least additional power of resisting cold, for which they have not been prepared by nature. Acclimatizing is still a secret to be discovered. To [p165] this day not a single instance can be adduced of any exotic plant whatever possessing greater powers of withstanding cold, than it had when first introduced. It has been hoped that if the seeds of given plant could be procured, for many generations, in a climate severer than its own, the offspring so obtained would gradually accommodate themselves to their new country; but no such result has followed from the experiments that have been tried. Let us take a few familiar examples:—the common nasturtium, (Tropælum majus,) a native of Peru, is said to have been introduced about the year 1686. At the time at which we are writing, it must have descended through about 140 generations; and yet it has not become in the smallest degree capable of resisting cold. Of the mignonette (Reseda odorata), the date of introduction is not well ascertained; it has probably been a favourite border annual for sixty or seventy years, and yet it has in no degree shaken off its annual character, which is unnatural to it, and resumed the suffrutescent habit which it possesses in its own milder climate. The potato, too, which has for two centuries and a half been increased in every conceivable manner, by seeds as well as by offsets, bears cold in no degree more readily than it did in the sixteenth century. Nor does it appear to us probable, that acclimatizing, if practicable, is to be brought about by sowing seeds in northern latitudes through successive generations. We do not believe that plants will bear their seeds at all in a temperature much lower than that in which they have been located by the hand of Nature. The heat of a northern summer sufficiently approximates to that of the tropics, to be considered, with reference to vegetation, as the same, and it is during that season that the seeds of all plants are ripened; the conditions, therefore, under which the seeds of Tropæolum, for example, are produced in England, do not materially differ from those under which the same seeds are produced in Peru; if the season proves unpropitious in any considerable degree, they are not produced at all. How then can it be expected that seeds ripened under similar circumstances, but in different latitudes, should give birth to a progeny differing in any remarkable particular from their parents? In fact, in power of resisting cold, they do not differ at all. If such a capability were to obtained, it would be by inducing plants to ripen their seeds in winter.

But if it is certain that nothing is to be gained in acclimatizing, by raising plants from seed through successive generations, [p166] it is no less true that many trees, which have been supposed to be incapable of surviving a northern winter, are now ascertained to be perfectly hardy, and that the power of enduring cold may be increased in others, by a judicious management of soil and situation.

The phenomenon of vegetable life being destroyed by cold, probably arises from the vessels, through which the circulation and secretion of the fluids of plants take place, being ruptured by the expansion, from cold, of the fluid they contain. In proportion, therefore, to the tenuity of the vessels, and the abundance of their fluid, will be the danger to which they are exposed from frost; and to the strength of the vessels, and the paucity of their fluid, the power of resisting cold. Thus vigorous shoots of the oak, walnut, and many other trees, which are formed with rapidity, imperfectly matured, and highly charged with fluid, are extremely impatient of cold, and are even destroyed by a few degrees of frost; while the twigs and branches of the same trees, which are formed slowly, fully matured, and incompletely filled with fluid, bear unharmed the utmost rigour of our winters. In acclimatizing, therefore, this law should be carefully remembered, and the situations in which tender plants are stationed, should be those in which their growth is restrained, and an excessive absorption of fluid prevented.

This appears to have been the true secret of the success that has attended the attempts at acclimatizing, which form the subject of Mr. Street’s communication. By planting in situations well drained from superfluous moisture, under circumstances where rapid growth was rendered impracticable, and, as we understand, in a garden admirably adapted to the object, from its position, he has succeeded in naturalizing, in latitude 56° N., plants which have not yet been known to endure the winters even of the parallel of London.

V. _Upon the Culture of Celery_. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., F.R.S., President.

“That which can be very easily done, without the exertion of much skill or ingenuity, is,” Mr. Knight observes, “very rarely found to be well done, the excitement to excellence being in such cases necessarily very feeble.” This remark is in the present case applied to the cultivation of celery, which, being a native of the sides of wet ditches, might naturally be expected to demand an abundant supply of water when cultivated. Accordingly, Mr. Knight found that by keeping the ground, in which celery was planted, [p167] constantly wet, it grew by the middle of September to the height of five feet, and its quality was in proportion to its size. Mr. Knight also recommends planting at greater distances than is usually the case, and covering the beds, into which the young seedlings are first removed, with half-rotten dung, overspread to the depth of about two inches with mould; under which circumstances, whenever the plants are removed, the dung will adhere tenaciously to their roots, and it will not be necessary to deprive the plants of any part of their leaves.

VI. _Report upon the New or Rare Plants which flowered in the Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, between March, 1825, and March, 1826_. Part 1. _Tender Plants_. By John Lindley, Esq.

The subject of this paper consisting of botanical details which do not bear curtailing, we shall only extract the names of the new species described in it, as a guide to our botanical readers. In the whole, thirty-three species are noticed; of which the following are published for the first time:—

2 Passiflora obscura. 7 Solanum dealbatum. 10 Tabernæmontana gratissima. 13 Tephrosia? Chinensis. 15 Hellenia abnormis. 16 Gesneria Douglassii. 21 Gynandropsis pulchella. 23 Rodriguezia planifolia. 26 Brassavola nodosa. 33 Phycella corusca.

VII. _Account of a Protecting Frame for Fruit-Trees on Walls_. By Mr. John Dick.

In order to protect the fruit upon walls from the ravages of bees, wasps, flies, and other winged enemies, a frame is contrived fitting close to the face of the wall, and having a moveable sliding canvass front, which can be readily removed when the fruit is to be gathered, and replaced again afterwards. A plan of the frame accompanies the paper. From what we have seen of this contrivance, we know that it is well adapted to its purpose, and that no garden in which fine fruit is required, should be without one or more of such frames. For the mode of making them, we must refer to the paper itself.

VIII. _On the Esculent Egg-Plants_. By Mr. Andrew Mathews.

In this country, the egg-plant, brinjal, or aubergine, is chiefly cultivated as a curiosity; but in warmer climates, where its growth is attended with less trouble, it is a favourite article of the kitchen-garden. In the form of fritters, or farces, or in soups, it is frequently brought to table in all the southern parts of Europe; and forms a pleasant [p168] variety of esculent. This paper describes the only two kinds that are worth cultivation in England.

IX. _Notices of Communications to the Horticultural Society, between January 1, 1824, and January 1, 1825. Extracted from the Minute Books and Papers of the Society_.

A novel kind of pine pit is described, which is said to answer every purpose that can be desired. It is heated by flues passing through a chamber, formed by beams extending from the back to the front wall, and so becoming a sort of floor, upon which is first placed a layer of turf; and then the tan in which the pine-plants are plunged. The warmer air is conveyed into the upper part of the pit by means of small apertures contrived in the walls, at four inches and a half apart, both in the back and front of the pit, and also through iron pipes resting on the beams and passing through the tan. The ventilation is effected by air-holes in the front wall, and sliding shutters in the back walls. An explanatory figure accompanies the statement.

The famous rhubarb, which has of late acquired so much celebrity under the name of Buck’s rhubarb, is mentioned as excellent when forced. It is not generally known, that this sort is the genuine Rheum undulatum of botanists uncontaminated by mixture with the common garden kinds. The plant generally called Rheum undulatum, is a half-bred, possessing none of the good qualities of the native species.

George Tollet, Esq., of Betley Hall, in Staffordshire, recommends the preservation of apples for winter store, packed in banks or hods of earth like potatoes. The method is said to be effectual and economical.

Thomas Bond, Esq., of East Looe, in Cornwall, describes his mode of cultivating strawberries. He does not adopt the common practice of cutting off the runners, but they are confined to the bed by being turned back among the plants from which they spring. In the autumn, the beds are covered to the depth of two inches with fresh earth, through which the strawberry plants shoot in the spring with great vigour.

A kind of wicker basket is described, which is cheap and well adapted for screening half hardy plants during the winter. It is fixed in the earth by means of the points of the ribs of the wicker work, which are allowed to project a few inches for the purpose.

It is stated by John Wedgewood, Esq., that good celery may be readily obtained by transplanting seedling plants that have remained in the seed bed, till they had acquired a [p169] considerable size. They grow more vigorously than the younger plants that are transplanted in the usual way.

William Cotton, Esq., of Wellwood-house, describes the good effects of painting an old garden wall with seal oil and anticorrosion paint. The wall in question was covered with trees, which were every year attacked by blight. Since the operation the trees have borne good fruit, made healthy wood, and been free from the bad consequences of blight.

Mr. John Mearns states, that the red and white Antwerp raspberries may be brought to bear abundantly in August, long after the usual crop of raspberries is past, by the following management. In May he removes the young fruit, bearing shoots, from the canes, leaving in some cases one or two eyes, in others, cutting them clean off. Under either plan, they soon produce an abundance of vigorous new shoots, which blossom freely in July.

Mr. Elias Hildyard, gardener to Sir Thomas Frankland, kills the grub which infests his onion beds by trenching the beds in winter, digging in manure at the same time, and leaving them exposed to the frost in a rough state till the time of sowing.

A mode of inducing fertility in a barren Swan’s-egg pear-tree trained upon a wall, is described by the Rev. John Fisher, of Wavenden, in Buckinghamshire. It consists in twisting and breaking down the side shoots of the main branches in such a way, as to make them pendulous without separating them wholly from the parent limb. In a short time a grumous formation takes place where the fracture has occurred, the wound heals, the flow of the sap is moderated, and fruit buds are formed instead of sterile shoots.

Mr. William Mowbray, gardener to the Earl of Mountnorris, states, that the different species of eatable Passifloras which do not generally produce fruit, may be induced to do so abundantly, if the pollen of other species is applied to their stigmas.

Currants are preserved in perfection in the garden of James Webster, Esq., of Westham, by being covered with bunting when the fruit is fully ripe, care being had to unloose the bunting occasionally from the bottom of the bushes, in order to remove the decaying fallen leaves.

X. _Report on the Instruments employed in, and on the Plan of a Journal of Meteorological Observations, kept in the garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick_.

This and the following paper we propose to notice in detail on a future occasion. [p170]

XI. _Journal of Meteorological Observations made in the garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, during the year 1826_. By Mr. William Beattie Booth.

XII. _On Orache, its Varieties and Cultivation_. By Mr. William Townshend.

The herb orache was formerly cultivated as a kind of summer spinach; but in this country it has long been expelled from the kitchen garden by other kinds. It is, however, still seen in the gardens of France, where it is commonly called Arroche des jardins, being used in that country, both by itself as a spinach, and mixed with sorrel, the acidity of which it corrects. Seven varieties are described, which do not differ in their qualities, but are distinguished by the colour of their foliage.

XIII. _On planting the moist Alluvial Banks of Rivers with Fruit-Trees_. By Mr. John Robertson.

The object of this writer is to show that the low grounds that form the banks of rivers are, of all others, the best adapted for the growth of fruit trees; the alluvial soil of which they are composed, being an intermixture of the richest and most soluble parts of the neighbouring lands, with a portion of animal and vegetable matter, affording an inexhaustible fund of nourishment. In such situations, however, the trees are liable to injury from floods in the winter, unless some means are used of draining off the stagnant water. This is to be effected by digging deep trenches between the rows of trees, casting up the earth from the trenches around the trees on either side, so as to form elevated banks. Such is the practice in Holland, where the western slopes of the dykes are generally covered with fruit-trees, chiefly apples and pears. Mr. Robertson is of opinion, that the banks should be raised, if possible, at least three or four feet above the highest water-mark, and be made eighteen feet broad at the base, and twelve at top; the trenches should be fifteen or sixteen feet wide, admitting the soil to be three or four feet deep.

Upon this plan, it is probable that abundant crops would be obtained; but with regard to the quality of the produce, we suspect it will be quite as indifferent as the apples and pears of the Dutch, which are notorious for their want of flavour.

XIV. _On Dahlias_. By Mr. William Smith.

This is an attempt to distinguish by words the best varieties of the Dahlia, and to fix the names of those which are the most worthy of cultivation. Sixty kinds are well described, [p171] arranged in divisions depending upon the size of the plants and the colour of their flowers. We do not propose to analyze this paper, which is far too extensive for our limits; but instead, to throw together a few remarks which are suggested by the subject.

The first fact to which we would call attention has reference to acclimatization. The Dahlia has now been cultivated in Europe with the utmost assiduity for nearly thirty years. During that period millions of plants have been raised from seeds, and under almost every possible variation of climate; and anomalies the most singular, not only in colour, but in general constitution and physiological structure, have been obtained. The colour of the flower has been altered from pale yellow, or lilac, to every hue of red, purple, or yellow, to pure scarlet and to deepest morone, or has even been wholly discharged from the radial florets in the white varieties; the period of flowering has been accelerated nearly two months; the tall rank weed, exceeding the human standard in height, has been reduced to a trim bush, emulating the pæony in dwarfishness; the yellow inconspicuous florets of the disk have been expelled to make room for the showy deep-coloured florets of the ray; what is more remarkable still, the same yellow inconspicuous florets of the disk have been enlarged, and stained with rich morone, so as to rival the colours of the ray without losing their own peculiarity of form; and finally, the whole foliage and bearing of the plant has been altered by the substitution of simple leaves for compound ones. But notwithstanding all this proneness to change, notwithstanding the multitude of varieties which have been thus procured by seed, _not one individual has yet been discovered, in any degree whatever, more hardy than its ancestors_. The earliest frosts destroyed the Dahlias as certainly in 1826, as they could have done in 1789.

But, however strong may be the disposition of the Dahlia to vary from its original structure, it is curious to observe how strictly it conforms to the laws by which such variations are controlled by nature. In altered structure all the changes take place from circumference to centre. The florets of the ray displace those of the disk, but the latter never attempt to occupy the ray; when a change occurs among the florets of the disk, they merely dilate and assume the colour of the ray, without changing their position or their peculiar form. So with the leaves; by a reduction of the lateral leaflet, till the terminal one only remains, simple foliage is substituted for that which was compound: but no case has been found in [p172] which the suppression of the terminal leaflet has taken place and the lateral ones have been preserved. In change of colour, too, there is a circumstance which demands consideration, and of which no explanation has yet been offered. It is not generally known, although long ago noticed by M. De Candolle, that among flowers, yellows will not produce blues, nor blues yellows, although both these primitive colours will sport into almost every other hue. Thus the hyacinth, the natural colour of which is blue, will not produce a yellow, for the dull, half-green flowers called yellow hyacinths, are, in our judgment, whites approaching green; the blue crocus will not vary into yellow, nor the yellow into blue; and the ranunculus and the dahlia, the natural colour of both which, notwithstanding the popular belief to the contrary, with respect to the dahlia, is, we believe, yellow, although they are the most sportive of all the flowers of the gardens, varying from pink to scarlet, and deepest shades of purple, have never yet been seen to exhibit any disposition to become blue. This subject offers a most amusing field for investigation, and would well repay the attentive consideration of the philosopher.

XV. _On the Cultivation of Camellias in an open Border_. By Mr. Joseph Harrison.

Mr. H. finds that the double red camellia, the double white, and the double striped, will bear an English winter if planted out when about two feet high, having been previously stunted in their growth by repeatedly stopping their leading shoots. For two winters the young plants are to be protected by a wooden screen fixed round them, and covered by a hand-glass, the whole being enveloped in mats; afterwards they require no other protection than to be guarded from heavy snowstorms, and to be assisted by a thick covering of old tan upon the ground in which they grow, to the distance of two or three feet from their stems. If this success has been met with in Yorkshire, what may not be expected in our more southern counties! On the 12th of March of the present year these camellias were not injured by a frost which did considerable damage to the common laurel.

XVI. _A Method of growing Crops of Melons on open Borders_. By Mr. William Greenshields.

The sorts fitted for this purpose are the black rock, scarlet rock, green-fleshed, netted and early Cantaloup melons. The method consists of forming a bed, by half filling a shallow [p173] trench with decayed vegetables, and covering them with the exhausted linings of cucumber beds. The young plants are reared for some time under handlights. For full particulars of this practice, we must refer to the paper itself, which is clearly written, and, coming as it does from one of our most skilful gardeners, well worthy of attention.

XVII. _Notice of Five Varieties of Pears received from Jersey in the year 1826_. By John Lindley, Esq.

The fruits here described are of the highest excellence. They are, 1. the Marie Louise; 2. the Duchesse d’Angoulême; 3. the Doyenné gris; 4. the Doyenné panaché; 5. the Beurré d’Aremberg; and 6. the Gloux morceaux. The second, the fifth, and the sixth kinds are represented in two very beautiful coloured plates; and are, perhaps, the most exquisitely flavoured of all the varieties of the pear. The Beurré d’Aremberg and Gloux morceaux are long keepers; the others are autumnal kinds. Of the former it is said, “the flesh is whitish, firm, very juicy, dissolves in the mouth, and is wholly destitute of grittiness; it is sweet, rich, and so peculiarly high flavoured, that I know no pear that can be compared with it in that respect.”

XVIII. _Upon the Culture of the Prunus Pseudo-cerasus, or Chinese Cherry_. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq.

This species of cherry is expected to become an acquisition of considerable value, for the purpose of forcing; and also as an early fruit, when trained upon an open wall. Mr. Knight recommends its propagation by cuttings, which root freely, and that it be abundantly supplied with liquid manure. From its highly excitable habits, he suspects it to be a native of a cold climate, probably of Tartary.

XIX. _On the Culture of the Pine-Apple_. By Mr. James Dall.

XX. _On forcing Asparagus_. By the same.

These two papers were communicated by the Cambridge Horticultural Society, having gained one of the annual silver medals presented by the London to Provincial Societies. They contain good practical directions for the cultivation upon which they treat.

XXI. _Observations upon forcing Garden Rhubarb_. By Mr. William Stothard.

This plan is perhaps the best that can be followed, as it is at once the most certain and the most simple. You sow rhubarb seed on a rich moist border in the beginning of April, [p174] The young plants are well thinned during the summer; in the end of October they are very carefully transplanted into forcing-pots, five or six in each pot. They are placed in a north aspect, to recover the effect of their removal from the seed-bed, and in a month they are fit for forcing. We can safely recommend this method.

XXII. _Account of some remarkable Holly Hedges and Trees in Scotland_. By Joseph Sabine, Esq.

This is in elaborate account of extraordinary specimens of hollies, and appears to have been written with a view to induce the more general cultivation in this country of that very valuable tree. At Tynningham, the residence of the Earl of Harrington, are hedges extending to no less a distance than 2952 yards, in some cases thirteen feet broad, and twenty-five feet high. The age of these hedges is something more than a century. At the same place are individual trees of a size quite unknown in these southern districts. One tree measured five feet three inches in circumference at three feet from the ground; the stem is clear of branches to the height of fourteen feet, and the total height of the tree is fifty-four feet. The other places at which the hollies are of unusual size, are Colinton-house the seat of Sir William Forbes; Moredun, the seat of David Anderson, Esq.; Hopetoun-house, the seat of the Earl of Hopetoun, and Gordon-castle, where are several large groups of hollies, apparently planted by the hand of Nature.

XXIII. _An Account of a Plan of Heating Stoves by means of Hot Water, employed in the Garden of_ Anthony Bacon, Esq.

We conceive that a new æra in horticulture will commence with the publication of this paper. We already possessed contrivances of a sufficiently good kind for all purposes connected with artificial climate, except the power of commanding heat; for which the two methods hitherto employed have been either too clumsy or too costly, and in either case liable to numerous objections. The old mode of introducing heat into a stove, by means of brick flues, has long been considered so bad, that every scheme that promised to supersede such flues has been hailed with joy; the uncertainty of the quantity of heat given out by a brick flue, its continual liability to explosion, the impossibility of preventing the escape of smoke from between the joints of the bricks, are all evils that require a remedy. For this purpose steam was introduced, and with great advantage in extensive ranges of hothouses. But the enormous expense of erecting a steam [p175] apparatus, the danger attending its use in the charge of an unskilful or careless gardener, and also the rapid loss of heat from the pipes upon any neglect of the boiler, have all contributed to prevent the use of steam becoming very general. The plan now described has the great merit of possessing all the good qualities of steam, without any of its objectionable accompaniments; its cost cannot in any considerable degree exceed that of flues, and its effects are so certain and durable, that a house so heated may be almost said to be beyond the power of neglect on the part of the gardener.

Without entering into the details of this plan, for which we must refer to the paper itself, we shall content ourselves with explaining its principle. Suppose two iron reservoirs, A and B, of equal capacity, placed twenty feet apart, and connected at the top and the bottom by iron pipes, the level of both reservoirs being the same; it is obvious that water poured into one of these reservoirs will flow into the other through the connecting pipes, and that it will consequently stand at the same height in both. Let the reservoirs be thus filled above the level of the uppermost pipe, and heat be applied to the bottom of one reservoir, A; the water in this will presently be forced through the upper pipe into the reservoir, B, of water not heated; in proportion as the heated water flows out of A, through the upper pipe, the cold water will flow out of B through the lower pipe; and by this means a circulation of water heated and water to be heated will be formed, which will continue as long as the application of fire to the bottom of one reservoir is continued. When it is discontinued, the temperature of the two reservoirs and of the intermediate pipes will be the same within three or four degrees. As it is the property of heated water to part with its heat very slowly, it follows that heat will continue to be disengaged from the reservoirs and pipes long after the application of fire has ceased. In fact, when the two reservoirs are once heated, the gardener may make up his fires and retire to rest, certain that his house is sufficiently provided with heat for the night.

The paper is accompanied with a plan of a vinery warmed upon this principle. [p176]

_On the Recent Elucidations of early Egyptian History_.

Since the commencement of the present century, the researches of philologists have ascertained that the language of ancient Egypt,—the language of the hieroglyphical inscriptions engraven on its ancient temples and monuments, and of the still existing manuscripts of the same period,—differs from the modern Egyptian or Coptic, only in the mixture in the latter of many Greek and Arabian and a smaller portion of Latin words, introduced during the successive dominion of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabs, and occasionally substituted for the corresponding native words. The grammatical construction of the language has remained the same at all periods of its employment: and it finally ceased to be a spoken language towards the middle of the seventeenth century, when it was replaced by the Arabian.

In writing their language, the ancient Egyptians employed three different kinds of characters. First, _figurative_; or representations of the objects themselves. Second, _symbolic_; or representations of certain physical or material objects, expressing metaphorically, or conventionally, certain ideas; such as, a people obedient to their king, figured, metaphorically, by a bee; the universe, conventionally, by a beetle. Third, _phonetic_, or representative of sounds; that is to say, strictly alphabetical characters. The phonetic signs were also portraits of physical and material objects; and each stood for the initial sound of the word in the Egyptian language which expressed the object pourtrayed: thus a lion was the sound L, because a lion was called Labo; and a hand a T, because a hand was called Tot. The form in which these objects were presented, when employed as phonetic characters, was conventional, and _definite_ to distinguish them from the same objects used either figuratively or symbolically; thus, the conventional form of the phonetic T was the hand open and outstretched; in any other form the hand would either be a figurative, or a symbolic sign. The number of distinct characters employed as phonetic signs appears to have been about 120; consequently many were homophones, or having the same signification. The three kinds of characters were used indiscriminately in the same writing, [p177] and occasionally in the composition of the same word. The formal Egyptian writing, therefore, such as we see it still existing on the monuments of the country, was a series of portraits of physical and material objects, of which a small proportion had a symbolic meaning, a still smaller proportion a figurative meaning, but the great body were phonetic or alphabetical signs: and to these portraits, sculptured or painted with sufficient fidelity to leave no doubt of the object represented, the name of hieroglyphics, or sacred characters, has been attached from their earliest historic notice.

The manuscripts of the same ancient period make us acquainted with two other forms of writing practised by the ancient Egyptians, both apparently distinct from the hieroglyphic, but which, on careful examination, are found to be its immediate derivatives; every hieroglyphic having its corresponding sign in the _hieratic_, or writing of the priests, in which the funeral rituals, forming a large portion of the manuscripts, are principally composed; and in the _demotic_, called also the _enchorial_, which was employed for all more ordinary and popular usages. The characters of the hieratic are for the most part obvious running imitations, or abridgments of the corresponding hieroglyphics; but in the demotic, which is still further removed from the original type, the derivation is less frequently and less obviously traceable. In the hieratic, fewer figurative or symbolic signs are employed than in the hieroglyphic; their absence being supplied by means of the phonetic or alphabetical characters, the words being spelt instead of figured; and this is still more the case in the demotic, which is, in consequence, almost entirely alphabetical.

After the conversion of the Egyptians to Christianity, the ancient mode of writing their language fell into disuse; and an alphabet was adopted in substitution, consisting of the twenty-five Greek letters, with six additional signs expressing articulations and aspirations unknown to the Greeks, the characters for which were retained from the demotic. This is the Coptic alphabet, in which the Egyptian appears as a written language in the Coptic books and manuscripts preserved in our libraries; and in which, consequently, the language of the inscriptions on the monuments may be studied. [p178]

The original mode in which the language was written having thus fallen into disuse, it happened, at length, that the signification of the characters, and even the nature of the system of writing which they formed, became entirely lost; such notices on the subject as existed in the early historians being either too imperfect, or appearing too vague, to furnish a clue, although frequently and carefully studied for the purpose. The repossession of this knowledge will form, in literary history, one of the most remarkable distinctions, if not the principal, of the age in which we live. It is due primarily to the discovery by the French, during their possession of Egypt, of the since well-known monument called the Rosetta Stone, which, on their defeat and expulsion by the British troops, remained in the hands of the victors, was conveyed to England, and deposited in the British Museum. On this monument the same inscription is repeated in the Greek and in the Egyptian language, being written in the latter both in hieroglyphics and in the demotic or enchorial character. The words Ptolemy and Cleopatra, written in hieroglyphics, and recognized by means of the corresponding Greek of the Rosetta inscription, and by a Greek inscription on the base of an obelisk at Philæ, gave the phonetic characters of the letters which form those words: by their means the names were discovered, in hieroglyphic writing, on other monuments of all the Grecian kings and Grecian queens of Egypt, and of fourteen of the Roman emperors ending with Commodus; and by the comparison of these names one with another, the value of all the phonetic characters was finally ascertained.

The hieroglyphic alphabet thus made out has been subsequently applied to the elucidation of the earlier periods of Egyptian history, particularly in tracing the reigns and the succession of the Pharaohs, those native princes who governed Egypt at the period of its splendour; when its monarchy was the most powerful among the nations of the earth; its people the most advanced in learning, and in the cultivation of the arts and sciences; and which has left, as its memorials, constructions more nearly approaching to imperishable, than any other of the works of man, which have been the wonder of every succeeding people, and which are now serving to re-establish, at the expiration of above 3000 years, the details of [p179] its long-forgotten history. To trace these stupendous monuments of art to their respective founders, and thus to fix, approximatively, at least, the epoch of their first existence, is a consequence of the restoration of the knowledge of the alphabet and the language of the inscriptions engraven on them. We propose to review, briefly as our limits require, the principal and most important facts that have thus recently been made known in regard to those early times; and shall deem ourselves most fortunate if we can impart to our readers but a small portion of the interest which we have ourselves derived in watching their progressive discovery.

The following are the authors to whom we are chiefly indebted for the few particulars we know of early Egyptian history. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, Grecians, and foreigners in Egypt. Manetho, a native; and Eratosthenes, by birth a Cyrenean, a province bordering on Egypt, both residents. Josephus, a Jew, and Africanus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, Christians, Greek authors. Herodotus visited Egypt four centuries and a half before Christ, and within a century after its conquest by the Persians. In his relation of the affairs of the Greeks and Persians, he has introduced incidentally a sketch of the early history of Egypt, such as he learnt it from popular tradition, and from information obtained from the priests. It is, however, merely a sketch, particularly of the earlier times; and is further recorded by Josephus to have been censured by Manetho for its incorrectness. Diodorus is also understood to have visited Egypt about half a century before Christ; and from him we have a similar sketch to that of Herodotus; a record of the names of the most distinguished kings, and for what they were distinguished; but with intervals, of many generations and of uncertain duration, passed without notice. Manetho was a priest of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt, a city of the first rank amongst the sacred cities of ancient Egypt, and long the resort of foreigners as the seat of learning and knowledge. He lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, two centuries and a half before Christ, and wrote, by order of that prince, the history of his own country in the Greek language, translating it, as he states himself, out of the sacred records. His work is, most unfortunately, lost; but the fragments which have been preserved to us, by the writings [p180] of Josephus in the first century of the Christian æra, and by the Greek authors above named of the third and fourth centuries, contain matter, which, if entitled to confidence, is of the highest historical value, _viz._, a chronological list of the successive rulers of Egypt, from the first foundation of monarchy, to Alexander of Macedon, who succeeded the Persians. This list is divided into thirty dynasties, not all of separate families; a memorable reign appearing in some instances to commence a new dynasty, although happening in the regular succession. It originally contained the length of reign as well as the name of every king; but in consequence of successive transcriptions, variations have crept in, and some few omissions also occur in the record, as it has reached us through the medium of different authors. The chronology of Manetho, adopted with confidence by some, and rejected with equal confidence by others,—his name and his information not being even noticed by some of the modern systematic writers on Egyptian history,—has received the most unquestionable and decisive testimony of its general fidelity by the interpretation of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the existing monuments: so much so, that by the accordance of the facts attested by these monuments with the record of the historian, we have reason to expect the entire restoration of the annals of the Egyptian monarchy antecedent to the Persian conquest, and which, indeed, is already accomplished in part.

Before we pursue this part of our subject, we must conclude our brief review of the original authorities in early Egyptian history, by a notice of Eratosthenes. He was keeper of the Alexandrian library in the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes, the successor to Ptolemy Philadelphus, under whose reign Manetho wrote. Amongst the few fragments of his works, which have reached us transmitted through the Greek historians, is a catalogue of thirty-eight kings of Thebes, commencing with Menes, (who is mentioned by the other authorities also as the first monarch of Egypt,) and occupying by their successive reigns 1055 years. These names are stated to have been compiled from original records existing at Thebes, which city Eratosthenes visited expressly to consult them. The names of the two first kings in his catalogue are the same with the names of the two first kings of the first dynasty of Manetho; but the [p181] remainder of the catalogue presents no further accordance, either in the names or in the duration of the reigns.

To return to Manetho:—amongst the monarchs of the original Egyptian race there was one named by him Amenophis, (the eighth king of the eighteenth dynasty,) of whom it is stated, in a note of Manetho’s preserved by Syncellus, that he was the Egyptian king whom the Greeks called Memnon. The statue of Memnon at Thebes, celebrated through all antiquity for the melodious sounds which it was said to render at sunrise, is identified in the present day by a multitude of Greek inscriptions; one of which, in particular, records the attestation of Publius Balbinus, who visited the ruins of Thebes in the suite of the empress the wife of Adrian, to his having himself heard the “divine sounds of Memnon or Phamenoph;” which latter name is Amenophis, with the Egyptian masculine article φ prefixed, and omitting the Greek termination. The hieroglyphics carved on the statue, and coeval with its date, had been very carefully copied by the French whilst in possession of Egypt, and were engraved in the splendid work, the _Description de l’Egypte_, to which their researches had given rise. These hieroglyphics contain the alphabetic characters Amnf (being the initial vowel and all the consonants of the name Amenof) inclosed within a ring; a distinction which had been previously observed to take place with the names of the Roman emperors, and of the Grecian kings and queens; and as the rings have hitherto been found to occur in no other instance whatsoever than when containing the names and titles of sovereigns, they are regarded as characteristic signs. It should be remarked, that in the hieroglyphic writing, as in the languages of other eastern nations most nearly connected with Egypt, the vowels are often omitted, and when expressed, have not always a fixed sound. The coincidence of the reading of the hieroglyphic name with that recorded by Manetho, and with the Greek inscription on the statue itself, was so far confirmatory of Manetho’s authority; it was also highly interesting in the evidence it afforded of the employment of the same hieroglyphic alphabet, that was in after use in the times of the Ptolemies and the Cæsars, even in the very early periods of the Egyptian monarchy; for the reign of Amenophis was in the dynasty preceding that of Sesostris: it also indicated the further [p182] advantage to be gained by the application of the alphabet in decyphering other proper names, distinguished by being inclosed in rings, existing on other statues, and in the more ancient temples generally. Considerable progress had been made in reading these, which in several instances had been found to correspond with the names of the kings of the same and of subsequent dynasties to Amenophis, as given by Manetho, when a most important discovery was made of the existence of a genealogical record, in hieroglyphics, of the titles of thirty-nine kings anterior to Sesostris, chronologically arranged. We have already noticed that the names and _titles_ of kings were distinguished by being inclosed in rings; the ring containing the proper name being accompanied usually by a second, inclosing certain other hieroglyphics, expressing the title by which that particular king was designated; and it appears probable that the kings of Egypt were distinguished by their titles rather than by their names, since the same name recurs frequently in different individuals, but the titles are all dissimilar; with a single exception amongst the very many that have come under observation, and in which the same title is common to two brothers. The signification of the titles is yet obscure, except that they are of the same general nature as is frequent in the East, such as “Sun of the Universe,” &c.; but for the purpose of individualizing, the sign is to us of the same value as the thing signified; and as other monuments furnish the _names_ in connexion with the _titles_, we are enabled to compare the succession evidenced by the titles with the record of the historian, and thus to test the fidelity of the record. The discovery of this hieroglyphic table was made by Mr. William Banks in 1818, in excavating for the purpose of obtaining an accurate ground-plan of the ruins of Abydus, near Thebes. On a side wall of one of the innermost apartments, hieroglyphics were sculptured inclosed in rings, ranged symmetrically in three horizontal rows, each row having originally contained twenty rings, of which twelve of the upper row, eighteen of the middle, and fourteen of the lower row were still remaining, the others having been destroyed by the breaking down of the wall. The hieroglyphics having been copied and lithographed, it was speedily recognised that the rings in the two upper rows consisted of titles only; with the exception of one [p183] proper name, the last of the second row, since known to be the name of the king whose title is the last in the succession, and who was the fourth in reign and generation before Sesostris. The third row was recognised to consist of one proper name and one title, each repeated ten times, and alternating with each other: these are since known to be the name and title of Sesostris, to whose reign the construction of the table is with much probability ascribed. The titles in the same row with that of the ancestor of Sesostris and preceding it, have been identified on other monuments, coupled with names which are those of the predecessors of the same king in the list of Manetho.

It would exceed our limits, and it is not our purpose, to trace in detail the successive steps by which the existence of each of the kings of Manetho’s list, from the expulsion of the Phœnician shepherds from Lower Egypt, and the consequent union of Upper and Lower Egypt in a single monarchy, to the reign of Sesostris, has been attested by the monuments. Suffice it to say, that the same number of individuals as stated by Manetho, namely, eighteen, filling a space of four centuries, are shown, by the monuments, to have reigned in that interval, and to have borne the same relationship, as well as succession, to each other, as is expressed by the historian: that, of the eighteen names, eight in different parts of the list are read on the monuments identically as in the historical record; and that in regard to the names that are not identical, we have the testimony of Manetho that some amongst the kings, Sesostris, for example, were known by two and even by more names. The table of Abydus appears to have been strictly a genealogical record; a record of generations, in which view it is strictly accordant with the historian.

The period of the Egyptian annals on which this light has been thrown, is precisely that which might have been selected in the whole history of Egypt as the most desirable for such purpose. Independently of its very high antiquity, it was the period of the greatest splendour and power of the native Egyptian monarchy, and of the highest (Egyptian) cultivation of the arts. The greater part of the more ancient, and by far the most admirable in execution, of the temples, palaces, and statues, which still attest by their ruins their former magnificence, are the work of that age; and the hieroglyphic inscriptions still [p184] extant on them, and which, when not defaced by wanton injury, are almost as perfect as when first executed, make known the reigns in which they were respectively constructed, and frequently the purposes for which they were designed. This is in itself no small achievement, when we reflect that these extraordinary remains of ancient art were equally the objects of vague wonderment in the times of the Roman emperors, as they were in those of the generation preceding ourselves; but that they are become to us objects of a more enlightened curiosity, which they promise amply to repay, when the study that has already made known their founders, shall reveal the signification of the hieroglyphic histories, with which the walls of the palaces and temples are covered. Already have we gained some very important facts in regard to the condition, political and otherwise, of the countries adjoining to Egypt at that early period. The monuments of Nubia are covered with hieroglyphics, perfectly similar both in form and disposition to those on the edifices at Thebes; the same elements, the same formulæ, the same language; and the names of the kings who elevated the most ancient amongst them, are those of the princes who constructed the most ancient parts of the palace of Karnac at Thebes. As far as Soleb on the Nile, 100 leagues to the south of Philæ the extreme frontier of Egypt, are found constructions bearing the inscriptions of an Egyptian king; evidencing that, during the period of which we have been treating, Nubia was inhabited by a people having the same language, the same belief, and the same kings as Egypt. To the south of Soleb, and for more than 100 leagues in ascending the Nile, in ancient Ethiopia, very recent travellers have discovered the remains of temples, of the same general style of architecture as those of Nubia and Egypt, decorated in the same manner with hieroglyphics representing the same mythology, and analogous to those of Egypt in the titles, and in the mode of representing the names and titles, of the sovereigns. But the proper names of the kings inscribed on the edifices of Ethiopia in phonetic characters, have nothing in common with the proper names of the Egyptian kings in the dynasties of Manetho; nor is one of the Ethiopian names found either on the monuments of Nubia or of Egypt. Thus there was a time when the civilized part of Ethiopia,—Meroe, and the banks [p185] of the Nile between Dongola and Meroe,—were inhabited by a people having language, writing, religion, and arts similar to Egypt; but, in political dominion, independent of that country, and ruled by kings of whom it does not appear that any historical record whatsoever has come down to us.

The dates of the expulsion of the Phœnican shepherds from Egypt, and of the reign of Sesostris, in years of the æra of our computation, have been favourite subjects of discussion with chronologists: Archbishop Usher fixed the former of these events in the year B. C. 1825; which would make the commencement of the reign of Sesostris about B. C. 1483. The reign of Sesostris is connected with the early Grecian chronology by the migration of Danaus, brother of Sesostris, who, according to the Parian marbles, arrived in Greece in 1485, which is a very few years earlier than the dates of Usher would assign to that event. M. Champollion Figeac, brother of the M. Champollion to whom the greater part of the discoveries made by the interpretation of hieroglyphics are owing, himself a distinguished chronologist, has assigned the year B.C. 1822 to the expulsion of the Phœnicians, which Usher had placed in 1825: the date of M. Champollion being derived from Manetho’s statement, that the Phœnician invasion took place in the 700th year of the Sothiacal period, _viz._, B.C. 2082, and that their dominion in Egypt continued 260 years. Historical accuracy may make it desirable, that the exact year of the most ancient as well as of more modern events should be determined, if it be possible: but for purposes of general interest, and especially for comparison with the chronology of cotemporary nations, which at that early period is in every case more unsettled than the Egyptian, the period seems sufficiently determined. The date before Christ 1822, pursued downwards through the dynasties of Manetho, conducts with very close approximation to the known period B.C. 525 of the conquest of Egypt by the Persians; and intermediately, accords very satisfactorily with the dates, according to the Bible chronology, of the conquest of Jerusalem in the reign of Jeroboam by Shishak, king of Egypt, and of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia and Egypt, who made war against Sennacherib; these are the Sesonchis of Manetho, and Sh.sh.n.k of hieroglyphic inscriptions on a temple at Bubaste, and on one of the courts of the [p186] palace at Karnac,—and the Taracus of Manetho, and T.h.r.k of hieroglyphic inscriptions existing in Ethiopia and in Egypt[33].