CALAMUS, n.
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.