Calamus Aromaticus

CALAMUS AROMATICUS, or Odoratus. A sort of Reed or sweet-scented Root. It is spoken of in some places of Exod. xxx. 23. Isai. xliii. 24. Jerem. vi. 20. Ezek. xxvii. 19.Scripture, where there is mention made of the particular Drugs whereof the sacred Perfumes were compounded. It is a knotty Root, redish without, and white within, which puts forth long and narrow Leaves. The true sweet Calamus comes from the Indies. The Prophets speak of it as a foreign Commodity, of great Value. Theophrastus¹ and Pliny mention the sweet Calamus, which grows in Syria, beyond Libanus, between this and another small Mountain, in a Lake, the Marshes whereof are dried up in the Summer; this Lake took up the space of above thirty Furlongs, and was an hundred and fifty Furlongs from the Sea: All which Circumstances persuade us, that they meant the Lake Semechon: These sweet scented Reeds have no smell while they are green; but when they are dry only. Their form is not at all different from other Reeds, and their smell is perceived as soon as any one enters the Marshes.

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