See CANE.

The Latin for cane, Hebrew Kaneh , Mentioned (Exodus 30:23) as one of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil, one of the sweet scents (Cant 4:14), and among the articles sold in the markets of Tyre (Ezekiel 27:19). The word designates an Oriental plant called the "sweet flag," the Acorus calamus of Linnaeus. It is elsewhere called "sweet cane" (Isaiah 43:24; Jeremiah 6:20). It has an aromatic smell, and when its knotted stalk is cut and dried and reduced to powder, it forms an ingredient in the most precious perfumes. It was not a native of Palestine, but was imported from Arabia Felix or from India. It was probably that which is now known in India by the name of "lemon grass" or "ginger grass," the Andropogon schoenanthus. (See CANE .)

CALAMUS, n.

1. The generic name of the Indian cane, called also rotang. It is without branches, has a crown at the top, and is beset with spines.

2. In antiquity, a pipe or fistula, a wind instrument, made of a reed or oaten stalk.

3. A rush or reed used anciently as a pen to write on parchment or papyrus.

4. A sort of reed, or sweet-scented cane, used by the Jews as a perfume. It is a knotty root, reddish without and white within, and filled with a spungy substance. It has an aromatic smell.

5. The sweet flag, called by Linne Acorus.

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