The ice cube on f102v

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Papyrus is a plant.  It appears in the early 15th century herbal Sloane 4016 like this:

The name "papirus" in the corner must be an advance tab for the plant on the next page.  The plant on that page is "papaver rubrus(?)", that is "red poppy".  

(The You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. does not look like that at all.  We had a bunch growing in our front year when I was a kid. Its stalks are about 2 meters tall, 4 cm wide at the base, tapering slightly, with absolutely no leaves or branches except that tuft of "hair" at the top.  The stalks have a thin though green skin and are filled with a dense white pith with long straight fibers.  The writing material was made from that pith -- sliced into strips, pounded thin, laid out in two layers with perpendicular fibers, all held together with a bit of gum arabic or the like.)

All the best, --stolfi