From: G&P
Message: 62772
Date: 2009-02-03
> Latin dictionaries note that calamus refers to objects made of reed such as flutes etc., not to the unprocessed plant,
That is a distinction I would find hard to believe for Latin. Latin often uses the material for an object made from the material (especially, but not only, in poetry). As it happens, Calamus is used for “reed” fairly extensively. You’ll find examples in Pliny, Horace, Cato, Vergil, Tibullus,, Lucretius and Ovid, all quoted in my dictionary.
Peter