noun
definition
The sweet flag, Acorus calamus.
definition
A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather.
noun
definition
An abnormal connection or passageway between organs or vessels that normally do not connect.
definition
A tube, a pipe, or a hole.
definition
The tube through which the wine of the Eucharist was once sucked from the chalice.
synonyms
Examples of calamus in a Sentence
The most striking trees in the forest region are, in the basin of the Cavalla, the giant Funtumia elastica, which grows to an altitude of 200 ft.; various kinds of Parinarium, Oldfieldia and Khaya; the bombax or cotton tree, giant dracaenas, many kinds of fig; Borassus palms, oil palms, the climbing Calamus palms, and on the coast the coconut.
They worshipped Re at sunrise with resin, at mid-day with myrrh and at sunset with an elaborate confection called kuphi, compounded of no fewer than sixteen ingredients, among which were honey, wine, raisins, resin, myrrh and sweet calamus.
The leaves, which show great variety in size and form, are generally broad and net-veined, but in sweet-flag (Acorus Calamus) are long and narrow with parallel veins.
The sweet-flag Acorus Calamus, which occurs apparently wild in England in ditches, ponds, &c., is supposed to have been introduced.
It was the Calamus aromaticus of the medieval druggists and perhaps of the ancients, though the latter has been referred by some to the Citron grass, Andropogon Nardus.
The spice "Calamus" or "Sweet-cane" of the Scriptures, one of the ingredients of the holy anointing oil of the Jews, was perhaps one of the fragrant species of Andropogon.
The rhizome of Acorus Calamus is sometimes adulterated with that of Iris Pseudacorus, which, however, is distinguishable by its lack of odour, a stringent taste and dark colour.
In the tropical zone large figs abound, Terminalia, Shorea (sal), laurels, many Leguminosae, Bombax, Artocarpus, bamboos and several palms, among which species of Calamus are remarkable, climbing over the largest trees; and this is the western limit of Cycas and Myristica (nutmeg).
The perennially humid regions of the Malayan peninsula and western portion of the archipelago are everywhere covered with dense forest, rendered difficult to traverse by the thorny cane, a palm of the genus Calamus, which has its greatest development in this part of Asia.
A. Calamus is now naturalised in most parts of Europe.