CYPRUS or Cyperus, a shrub mentioned in Scripture by the name of CopherCant. i. 13. iv. 13. כפר in Hebrew, and Cyprus in Latin. It is so common in the Isle of Cyprus, that the Island itself is thought to take its name from it. This Shrub produces a very sweet Flower; but those which grow in the Isle of Cyprus in this particular excell all others.1 There were some likewise which grew in the territory of Engedi, as the Spouse in the Canticles expresses, who compares her Husband to a bunch of Cyprus growing in the Vineyards Cant. i. 13. Vulg.of Engedi. Pliny says, that the best Cyprus was that of Canopus, and next to it that of Askelon in Palestine: Dioscorides says the same thing. There are persons who are of opinion, that the Cyprus and the Ligustrum or Privet, are the same Plant. But it is rather the Alhanna of the Arabians. The eastern People use it with the Leaves of Senna, to blacken their Hair withal2. Now the Leaves of this kind of Rush, in Latin, Cyperus odoratus, are like those of the Reed, longer, thinner, and harder than those of a Leek: The Stock of it grows to the height of about two Feet; it is strait, triangular, without knots, at the top of it the Blossoms put out, which have several Stamina collected into large Buttons. The Seed of it is hard, triangular, and covered with a black Skin. The Roots of it are long, knotty, twisted one within another, blackish, and of an agreeable smell. There is another Species of this Rush like the preceding one, with only this difference, that the roots of it are round, about the largeness of an Olive, and many of them joined together.
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