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Webster 1913 Edition
Calamus
1.
(Bot.)
The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See
Rattan
, and Dragon’s blood
. 2.
(Bot.)
A species of
Acorus
(Acorus 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.
(Zool.)
The horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.
Webster 1828 Edition
Calamus
CALAMUS
,Noun.
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.