Category:Calamus

Cal"a*mus, n.; pl. Calami. Etym: [L., a reed. See Halm.]

1. (Bot.)

Defn: The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See Rattan, and Dragon's blood.

2. (Bot.)

Defn: A species of Acorus (A. calamus), commonly called calamus, or sweet flag. The root has a pungent, aromatic taste, and is used in medicine as a stomachic; the leaves have an aromatic odor, and were formerly used instead of rushes to strew on floors.

3. (Zoöl.)

Defn: The horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.

- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Calamus - 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 (Song of Songs 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.)