CHAPTER IV.

DOUBTFUL PLANTS AND TREES.

THE BAY TREE.

THIS tree is mentioned only in Ps. xxxvi. 35, 36:-'I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.' But the original word azrech, merely signifies a native tree-a tree growing in its native soil, not having suffered by transplantation, and therefore spreading itself luxuriantly.

THE PINE TREE.

THIS tree appears in three passages of our Bible; but the manner in which it is introduced affords us no means of ascertaining whether this is a correct rendering of the original word. The first passage is Neh. viii. 15, where it is stated that pine branches were to be used in constructing the booths at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Hebrew words literally signify trees of fatness, and so seem to mean the resinous or gummy kind of trees, whose juices superabound and exude.

In Isa. xli. 19, and ch. lx. 13, the word is thedher, and the tree is so called, says Parkhurst, from the sprightliness or elasticity of its wood. Luther thought it was the elm: there is nothing, however, to operate against retaining the pine, which is found in Syria.

THE SHITTAH TREE.

THIS tree is only mentioned in Isaiah xli. 19; but the wood which it furnished is spoken of in several passages in the Old Testament. The difficulty of identifying the shittah tree, has been felt by all interpreters, as is evident in the retention of the Hebrew name by many of them, and the diversified renderings of others.

Dr. Shaw, Mr. Parkhurst, and Mr. Taylor, take the shittah to be the same as the acanthus, or the acacia vera; a tree about the size of the mulberry tree, producing yellow flowers, and pods like lupines. It also yields the gum Arabic. The bark of this tree is of a greyish black; its wood is of a pale yellow color; its leaves resemble those of a lentil, and many hang together on the same side of a branch. The branches are full of thorns, which are often in pairs, and its foliage is extremely scanty.

The ark of the covenant (Exod. xxv. 10), the table of the shewbread (ver. 23) the bars and pillars of the tabernacle (ch. xxvi. 26, 32, 37), the altar of burnt-offering (ch. xxvii. 1 ; ch. xxxviii. 1), and the altar of incense (ch. xxx. 1), were all made of shittim wood, which the LXX., apparently unable to identify, have rendered, 'in-corruptible wood.'

THE ALMUG TREE..

ALMUG trees are mentioned in 1 Kings x. 11, 12, as being among the costly things brought from Ophir by the navy of Hiram, to king Solomon.

To detail the various opinions maintained by the learned, as to the particular tree intended by the almug or algum, would answer little purpose, though it would occupy considerable space. We will, however, transcribe the entire passage relative to it, from Josephus, as his statement may be considered, in such a case, of some importance. 'About the same time, there were brought to the king, from the Aurea Chersonesus, a country so called, precious stones, and pine trees; and these trees he made use of for supporting the temple and the palace, as also for the materials of musical instruments, the harps, and the psalteries that the Levites might make use of in their hymns to God. The wood which was brought to him at this time, was larger and finer than any that had ever been brought before; but let no one imagine that these pine trees were like those which are now so named, and which take their denomination from the merchants, who so call thein, that they may procure them to be admired by those that purchase them; for those we speak of, were, to the sight, like the wood of the fig tree, but were whiter and more shining. Now, we have said thus much, that nobody may be ignorant of the difference between these sorts of wood, nor unacquainted with the nature of the genuine pine tree; and we thought it both a seasonable and humane thing when we mentioned it, and the uses the king made of it, to explain this difference so far as we have done.'

THE BOX TREE.

THE box tree, being an evergreen, answers well enough to the Hebrew tashur, which probably implies perpetual viridity. The objection to this tree, that it is not sufficiently stately, seems to possess no weight, because there are associations of objects of an equally disproportionate size, where they participate of a common character, in other parts of the sacred writings. The import of the passages where this tree is spoken of (Isa. xli. 19; ch. lx. 13.), appears to be this: a perpetual verdure shall succeed to an unbroken barrenness I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together.' But as we have not sufficient means to ascertain satisfactorily whether this was the tree to which the prophet referred, we prefer to place it in this section.

THE GOURD.

M. MICHAELIS in his remarks on Jonah iv. says, 'Celsius appears to ine to have proved that it is the 'kiki of the Egyptians.' Herodotus says: "The inhabitants of the marshy grounds in Egypt make use of an oil which they term the kiki, expressed from the Sillicyprian plant. In Greece this plant springs spontaneously without any cultivation; but the Egyptians sow it on the banks of the river and the canals; it there produces fruit in abundance, but of a very strong odor. When gathered they obtain from it, either by friction or pressure, unctuous liquid which diffuses an offensive smell, but for burning, it is equal in quality to the oil of olives." This plant rises with a strong herbaceous stalk to the height of ten or twelve feet; and is furnished with very large leaves, not unlike those of the plane tree. Rabbi Kimchi says, that the people of the East plant them before their shops for the sake of the shade, and to refresh themselves under them. M. Niebhur says, 'I saw for the first time, at Basra, the plant el-keroa. It has the form of a tree. The trunk appeared to me rather to resemble leaves than wood; nevertheless, it is harder than that which bears the Adam's fig. Each branch of the keroa has but one large leaf, with six or seven foldings in it. This plant was near a rivulet which watered it amply. At the end of October, 1765, it had risen in five months time, about eight feet, and bore at ouce flowers and fruit, ripe and unripe. Another tree of this species which had not had so much water, had not grown more in a whole year. The flowers and leaves of it which I gathered, withered in a few minutes; as do all.

plants of a rapid growth. This tree is called at Aleppo, 'Palma Christi.' An oil is made from it called 'oleum de keroa; oleum cicinum; oleum ficus infernalis.' The Christians and Jews of Mosul [Nineveh] say, it was not the keroa, whose shadow refreshed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kera, which has very large leaves, very large fruit, and lasts about four months.'

The epithet which the prophet uses in speaking of the plant, 'son of the night it was, and son of the night it died,' does not compel us to believe that it grew in a single night, but either by a strong oriental figure, that it was of rapid growth, or akin to night in the shade it spread for his repose. The figure is not uncommon in the East, and one of our own poets has called the rose 'child of summer.' Nor are we bound to take the expression 'on the morrow' as strictly importing the very next day, since the word has reference to much more distant time, Exod. xiii. 5; Deut. vi. 20; Josh. iv. 6. It might be simply taken as afterwards. The circumstance of the speedy withering of the flowers and leaves of the keroa should not be slightly passed over; nor that of its present name cicinum (pronouncing the c hard, like k), which is sufficiently near the kikiun of Jonah. The author of Scripture Illustrated' remarks, 'as the history of Jonah expressly says, the Lord prepared this plant, no doubt we may conceive of it as an extraordinary one of its kind, remarkably rapid in its growth, remarkably hard in its stem, remarkably vigorous in its branches, and remarkable for the extensive spread of its leaves and the deep gloom of their shadow; and, after a certain duration, remarkable for a sudden withering, and a total uselessness to the impatient prophet.'

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On the wild gourds of 2 Kings iv. 39, we have spoken in the article on the vine.

THE HEATH.

'HE shall be like the heath in the desert,' says the prophet; 'he shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land,' Jer. xvii. 6. And again,'Flee, save yourselves, and be like the heath in the wilderness,' ch. xlviii. 6. But what plant is this heath? The LXX. and the Vulgate say, 'a tamarisk: others 'a leafless tree;' and Parkhurst quotes from Taylor, a blasted tree, stripped of its foliage.' If it be a particular plant, he thinks the tamarisk as likely as any, because these trees have not much beauty to recommend them, their branches being produced in so straggling a manner, as not by any art to be trained up regularly: and their leaves are commonly thin upon their branches, and fall away in winter, so that there is nothing to recommend them but their address. But the question presents it

self, says Mr. Taylor, can the tamarisk live in a salt land? in parched places? He thinks not, and therefore proposes to seek the Hebrew orur among the lichens, a species of plants which are the last productions of vegetation, under the severe cold of the frozen zone, and under the glowing heats of the equatorial deserts; so that it seems best qualified to endure parched places, and a salt land.

HEMLOCK.

THE Word in Hebrew is used to denote a deadly poison in general, whether animal or vegetable : Deut. xxix. 18, margin, &c. It is frequently joined with wormwood; and from a comparison of Ps. lxix. 22, with John xix. 29, the learned Bochart thinks this herb in the Psalms to be the same as the Evangelist calls hyssop, a species of which growing in Judea, he proves to be bitter; adding, that it is so bitter as not to be eatable."

From Hos. x. 4, &c. it seems that this word is also used to denote some particular vegetable: Judgment springeth up as hemlock, in the furrows of the field.' Here the comparison, as Mr. Taylor suggests, is to a bitter herb, which, growing among corn, overpowers the useful vegetable, and substitutes a pernicious weed. If the comparison be to a plant growing in the furrows of the field, strictly speaking, he continues, then we are much restricted in our plants, likely to answer this character; but if we may take the ditches around, or the moist and sunken places within the field also, then we may include other plants, and there is no reason why hemlock may not be intended,

WORMWOOD.

THIS may very properly follow hemlock, or gall; as it is so frequently united with it in scripture. It must be observed, that the disagreeable effects attributed to this plant (Deut. xxix. 18; Prov. v. 4; Jer. ix. 15; ch. xxiii. 15; Amos v. 7; and Rev. viii. 11), by no means accord with the wormwood of Europe, which is rather a salutary herb than a deadly poison. The true wormwood, therefore, may not be intended, but some plant allied to it, either in form or appearance; or which if it be of the same class, differs by its more formidable properties. The LXX. usually translate the word by terms expressive of its figurative sense.