Notes in green are the original marginalia. The running title is Observ. upon several Plants Tract I. // Tract I. mention'd in Scripture.
1. A pencilled note in a copy of the Tracts belonging to John Evelyn says that "Most of these letters were written to Sir Nicholas Bacon". The margin bears the notice Introduction.
2. In John 8:6-10.
3. Luke 24. 27.
4. In the Iliad 18:484-485: the Sun, a full Moon, the Pleiades, Hyades, Orion and the Bear (or Wain or Dipper). Job 9:9 and 38:31 mention the Pleiades and Orion; 9:9 and 28:32 mention Arcturus (and in the latter "his sons" and hence, presumably, Boötes); Amos 5:8 mentions "the seven stars" (the Bear) and Orion. The "morning star" is mentioned several times, and of course the Sun and the Moon, as well as various unidentified stars, comets and meteorites and the star seen at the birth of Christ.
5. James 1. 17.
6. Jude 1:13: sidera errantia.
7. Jude 1:13, in the KJV, "Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandring stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." A note by Wilkin in his edition of the Complete Works of Browne (hereafter, Wilkin): "Barchochebas. One of the impostors who assumed the character of Messias; he changed his true name, Bar-Coziba, son of a lie, to that of Bar-chochebas, son of a star! He excited a revolt against the Romans which led to a very sanguinary contest, terminating with his death, at the storming of Bither by the Romans under Julius Severus. Bossuet supposes him to be the star mentioned in the 8th chap. of Revelation.
"The apostle Jude more probably alluded to the term 'star', by which the Jews often designated their teachers, and applied it here to some of the Christian teachers, whose unholy motives, erroneous doctrines, or wandering and unsettled habits exposed them to his rebuke."
Justin Martyr in his First Apology mentions Barchochebas as an anti-Christian leader of the Jews in their revolt against the Romans. The star mentioned in Revelation 8:10-11 has another interesting connection with the (putative) subject of this tract, as it is called Wormwood.
8. Cf. Cyrus-Garden Chapter I and note.
9. Gen. 4:22. Tubalcain son of Zillah was "an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron".
10. MS Sloane 1841 adds "sulphur".
11. Depinxit oculos stibio. 2 King. 9.30. Jerem. 4.30. Ezek. 23.40. In the Vulgate. The KJV, 2 Kings 9:30, reads "painted her eyes"; the Hebrew word used implies powdered antimony (stibium) in much the same way that English "painted her cheeks" and "painted her lips" imply "with rouge" and "with lipstick". Similarly with the other cited passages.
12. Rev. 21:11 ff., especially 18-21.
13. Exodus 28:15-21. The breastplate as designed by God had four rows of three stones each: a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle; an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst; and a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper, each of which was either inscribed with the name or the symbol of one of the tribes of Israel or perhaps simply represented the tribe. Described at great length by Josephus. See also Pseudodoxia I.iii and note.
14. Ear-rings: many places, e.g., Gen. 35:4 and Exodus 32:2; bracelets: again in many places, e.g., Numbers 31:50. Pearl and coral in Job 28:18; coral in Ezekiel 27:16; amber and crystal are mentioned (as colors) in Ezekiel. Job 28:17 mentions crystal.
15. 1 Kings 9:26 ff.
16. On their way to Ophir for gold; 1 Kings 22:48.
17. Acts 27.
18. Artemidorus, early 3rd century, author of Oneirocritica, which had been translated into English in 1656; Ahmed Ibn Sirin, died ca. 728, author of a work on the interpretation of dreams as related in Islamic hadith.
19. Pseudo-Aristotle's Physiognomy 811b.33-34: οἱ δὲ τετράγωνον σύμμετρον τῷ μετώπῳ ἔχοντες μεγαλόψυχοι· ἀναφέρεται ἐπὶ τοὺς λέοντας. "Those having a symmetrical rectangle as a forehead are magnanimous: it is seen in lions."
20. 1 Chr. 12:8: "And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold in the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains."
21. This reminds me of a story I once heard or read (I cannot remember the source) of an Indian professor of English literature's first visit to England. On landing, he saw yellow flowers blooming about the tarmac, walked up to them and began to quote Wordsworth's lines on daffodils. The flowers were dandelions. I had a friend in college who claimed, at the moment of looking at a tulip in bloom, not to know the difference between a rose and a tulip. What is the meaning for these people of such phrases as "the last rose of summer" or "daffodils that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty"? An interesting area for investigation.
22. MS Sloane 1841: "insatisfaction"
23. Here the Introduction ends, and The Observations. begin. Kikaion. Jonah 4.6; a Gourd. In the KJV: "And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd." The Vulgate has "et praeparavit Dominus Deus hederam et ascendit super caput Ionae ut esset umbra super caput eius et protegeret eum laboraverat enim et laetatus est Iona super hedera laetitia magna". Most English Bibles have gourd, although the "Bible in Basic English" plumps for "vine". If in fact it is the castor plant — see the following notes — this, however, is the wrong "basic".
24. That is, they have kikayon or kikajon as marginal notes. The Greek has "κολοκυνϑη".
25. In the Authorized and Revised versions a marginal note offers the alternative "palm-christ" or "Palma Christi". The Douay, following Jerome, has "ivy"; the "Second French" Bible of Louis Segond has "ricin". Both readings were vehemently contested by Augustine; see the following notes.
26. Wilkin notes "Augustine called it a gourd, and accused Jerome of heresy for the opinion he held. Yet they both seem to have been wrong. It was in all probability the kiki of the Egyptians, a plant of the same family as the ricinus; and, according to Dioscorides, of rapid growth; bearing a berry from which an oil is expressed; rising to the height of ten or twelve feet, and furnished with very large leaves, like those of the plane-tree; so that the people of the East plant it before their shops for the sake of its shade." St. Augustine objected to that translation as well, on several good grounds. The castor-bean is as "little subject unto Worms" as ivy, at least in these parts. See Plants of the Bible (Harold N. Moldenke and Alma L. Moldenke, Waltham, MA: Chronica Botanica, 1952; reprinted in 1986 by Dover; hereafter "Moldenke"), an exhaustive work on which I shall lean heavily in these notes.
27. Leviticus 14:4 ff. describes the ritual for dealing with leprosy, including hyssop. Cf. the NT stories of curing lepers, e.g., Matthew 8, 11, Mark 14. The Hebrew is אזוב ezob, the Greek ὔσωπος. It is, says Moldenke, "unquestionably the most puzzling and controversial of all the words in the Bible applying, or thought to apply, to plants and plant products." The hyssop we are familiar with is not native to the Levant. The word itself may refer to several different plants; in this case, the most likely candidate is Origanum maru, the Syrian marjoram. All members of the mint family are in any case susceptible to variation caused both by cross-breeding and by simple freakishness of the genes. That is why there are so many varieties of mint, and why people who have found a mint plant that is to their liking attempt to keep it pure, reproducing it vegetatively and culling inferior specimens. Consider also the tarragon plant: the culinary variety does not seem to be reproducible from seed (it always yields the so-called "Russian" tarragon, which is simply flavorless tarragon). Wilkin notes, on hyssop, that it is "a diminutive herb of a very bitter taste, which Hasselquist [F. Hasselquist, Voyages and Travels in the Levant in the years 1749-1752 (in Swedish, edited by Linnæus, 1757; in English, 1766)] mentions as growing on the mountains near Jerusalem, as well as on the walls of the city. Pliny mentions it in connection with the vinegar and the sponge. Nat. Hist. lib. xxiii, c. 1." Pliny HN xxiii.55 (see also the note at that location). Matt. 24:48; Mark 15:36. Cf. John 19:29, which reads "hyssop" rather than "reed".
28. Pierre Belon, whose Observations on his travels in the Middle East, Greece and Egypt were published in 1555. They were republished in English in 1693 (after Browne's death) as part of John Ray's two-volume compendium of travel literature.
29. In 1 Kings 4:33: "And [Solomon] spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." Browne's Capillary is the maiden's hair fern, or more generally any of the ferns or their relatives; but certainly not a tree, as the passage suggests we should expect. Neither of course is the hyssop a tree. Some suggest the caper, Capparis sicula, which is (1) woody, (2) wall-growing, and (3) often decumbent, thus furnishing an excellent antithesis to the cedar while still remaining in the category "tree". (The translation of the Hebrew ets as "tree" is uncontested.)
30. On libanotis, see Pliny HN xix.187 and xx.172. The Greek original can mean any of several different plants, including rosemary and several varieties of incense. In Latin Libanotis is almost always rosemary. The Vulgate uses the Latin tus, whose meaning is similar to the Greek. English traditionally, if not accurately, uses "frankincense".)
31. Hemlock. Hosea 10.4. Amos 6.2. Hosea: "They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field", where "hemlock" translates the Hebrew r'osh, elsewhere translated "gall" or "venom" or "bitterness". Amos: "Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock", where "hemlock" translates the Hebrew la'anach, elsewhere translated "wormwood". The plant usually called hemlock hardly "springs up", although some weedy plants like the water hemlock also bear the name hemlock. Perhaps wormwood, or perhaps, as Browne (and the Hebrew) suggests, merely a type for any poisonous plant. This is the solution of many English translators, who use "wormwood", "poisonous thing", "weed", or, in the case of the Douay's Hosea, simply "bitterness".
32. Paliurus. Isaiah 34:13, Vulgate: "et orientur in domibus eius spinae et urticae et paliurus in munitionibus eius et erit cubile draconum et pascua strutionum"; KJV: "And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls". Micah 7:4, "qui optimus in eis est quasi paliurus et qui rectus quasi spina de sepe dies speculationis tuae visitatio tua venit nunc erit vastitas eorum", "The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity". Probably Solanum incanum, a thorny nightshade (also called Palestine nightshade, Jericho potato, apple of Sodom). Its thorns are brutal and its handsome fruit when ripe bursts, emitting what appears to be a cloud of dust and ashes. Rhamnus palæstina is a shrub widely used for hedges. Paliurus spina-christi (or australis) is another thorny, straggling shrub. Along with Zizyphus spina-christi, the "great jujube", it is a candidate for the source of the Crown of Thorns.
33. Rubus. Exodus 3:2-4: "apparuitque ei Dominus in flamma ignis de medio rubi et videbat quod rubus arderet et non conbureretur [3] dixit ergo Moses vadam et videbo visionem hanc magnam quare non conburatur rubus [4] cernens autem Dominus quod pergeret ad videndum vocavit eum de medio rubi et ait Moses Moses qui respondit adsum"; "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I". "The most logical explanation," says Moldenke, "seems to be that of Smith who suggests that the 'flame of fire' may have been the crimson-flowered mistletoe known as the acacia strap-flower, Lorantus acaciæ, which grows in great profusion on various thorny Acacia shrubs and trees in the Holy Land and Sinai.… This mistletow, when in full bloom, imparts to the shrub or tree the appearance of being ablaze with fire because of its brilliant flame-coloured blossoms.… Smith calls attention to the almost breath-taking appearance of this mistletoe on the yellow-flowered opoponax." [J. Smith's Bible Plants (1878), not W. Smith's Bible Dictionary] The question of why the KJV (and most English translations) have "bush" rather than the more accurate "thorny bush" is open. The Hebrew seneh is a thorny bush, possibly a blackberry.
34. Mark 12:26, Luke 20:37; Acts 7:30 and 35. The LXX Exod. 3:2 has βάτος. In Dioscorides 4:37-38, "blackberry, "bramble", but he uses the same word for other plants; see 1:13.
35. Myrica. MS Sloane 1847 "be as the heath in the wilderness." A marginal annotation to Cant. 1.14 in all (print) editions belongs with the next section, where it is repeated.
Jer. 48:6: "Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness." Jer. 17:6: "For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited." Wilkin notes "The LXX, in Jer. xlviii, 6, instead of ouru evidently read orud, 'a wild ass;' which suits that passage (as well as Jer. xvii, 6) better than 'heath'!" The Vulgate has "myrica", and most English translations use "bush" or "heath" (although at 48:6 Basic English has "and let your faces be turned to Aroer in the Arabah" and Young, more comprehensibly, has "Ye are as a naked thing in a wilderness".) The Hebrew ar-ar means "destitute, deprived, naked"; in reference to a bush, possibly juniper or just scrub, as it is rendered in some translations, or even simply naked.
36. The Douay does use tamarix. The figure in the passage makes the identification unlikely. Who would tell someone to go and hide in the wilderness like a medium-sized and quite showy tree? Like many other desert plants, the tamarix does bear a resemblance to heath (in its leaves and general habit, although not in its size). Some botanists claim that there are native heaths in the Holy Land, in limited distribution, but others assert the contrary. Gerard complains bitterly about a plant called "Rose of Jericho", which he renames "Heath of Jericho", because it is, he says, of all the plants described by botanists the least like a rose. (It does indeed resemble a small, gnarly, dried heath in his illustration.)
37. Cypress. Cant. 1. 14 "My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi." The Vulgate (at 1:13) has "botrus cypri dilectus meus mihi in vineis Engaddi". "Κύπρος" = "tree growing in Cyprus". Cant. 4:13. "Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard"; Vulgate: "emissiones tuae paradisus malorum punicorum cum pomorum fructibus cypri cum nardo".
38. The Hebrew kopher is translated in the KJV as ransom (8 times), satisfaction (twice), bribe (twice), camphire (twice), and once each as pitch, sum of money, and village. It is possibly the name of a plant, probably henna.
39. Because the surrounding verses mention other fragrant plants, spikenard and myrrh.
40. The Segond translation of 1910 has troëne, "privet". Ligustrum or Alcharma = henna or "Egyptian privet", Lawsonia inermis. Henna's small white to yellowish flowers are powerfully fragrant, reminiscent of roses. It is widely distributed in the area, from India to the Levant to Egypt and the Mediterranean.
41. Pliny HN xii.109 (englished): henna.
42. Pliny HN xv.28 (englished), xxviii.109; famous for its odor.
43. Cinnamomum camphora. Camphor is the dried crystalline resin; the oil exuded in the process of creating camphor is also used ("oil of camphor"), but probably was not known to Browne. While the tree will grow in any tropical or warm sub-tropical area, there is no evidence that it grew in the Holy Land in early Biblical times. On the other hand, the substance and the tree may well have been known to the ancients. Browne may be confused by the "m" added when the word came back into modern European languages from the Arabic, who had in turn borrowed it from the Greek καφουρα. The word occurs in Dioscorides and as an interpolation (say the critics) in Galen, in its present meaning. Cognates occur in numerous other ancient languages (Persian, Sanskrit, and so on).
44. Shittah Tree, &c. Isa. 41.19. Vulgate: "dabo in solitudine cedrum et spinam et myrtum et lignum olivae ponam in deserto abietem ulmum et buxum simul". The word "shittah" occurs in the singular only in this passage; it usually occurs as "shittim wood". Shittim = "sticks of wood", presumably an allusion to its habit of growing in gnarled, shrub-like groups. The tree may be either or both of Acacia seyal and Acacia tortilis, "the only timber trees of any considerable size on the Arabian desert" (Moldenke), but a major argument against this identification is that the remainder of the list consists of trees that do not normally grow in the desert; indeed, that seems to be the point.
45. Grapes of Eshcol. Num. 13.23. Numbers 13:23-24: "And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence." Eshcol = cluster (eshcowl = "cluster of grapes").
46. ἄριστος ϑέααριστος ϑεα. Philo.
47. Moldenke (p. 243) quotes a letter from a Dr. Robert F. Griggs, who believed that the " 'grapes' brought back by Joshua and Caleb were bananas.… It impressed me because bananas are obviously the only fruit a bunch of which would constitute a man's burden as there described.… Furthermore, my slight acquaintance with higher criticism has indicated that the translators of the English text were very much at a loss to find English equivalents for the words of the original and upon discovering mention of a fruit in bunches, grapes would be the most natural way to construe it." The Vulgate has uva. The Hebrew 'enab seems to mean simply "bear fruit", which might easily mean "grape", the fruit of fruits to most of the world that knows it, and especially of fruits that cluster. Moldenke says that "the grape-vine of the Old World sometimes assumes the habit of a tree … bearing bunches of grapes 10 or 12 pounds in weight, the individual berries the size of small plums. Bunches have even been produced weighing as much as 26 pounds. The vines of Palestine were always renowned both for the luxuriance of their growth and for the immense clusters of grapes which they produced." Wilkin notes "Doubdan (Voyage de la Terre Sainte, ch. xxi [Jean Doubdan's Le Voyage de la Terre-Sainte, contenant une véritable description des lieux plus considérables que N.S. a sanctifié de la présence, prédications, miracles & soufrances. L'estat de la ville de Ierusalem, tant ancienne que moderne; Plus une légère description des principales villes de l'Italie. Fait l'an 1652 par M.I.D.P. Paris, F. Clovsier, 1657] speaks of bunches weighing ten or twelve pounds. Forster, on the authority of a Religious, who had long resided in Palestine, says, that there grew in the valley of Hebron bunches so large that two men could scarcely carry one."
48. Sc. Carmania. The Greeks raised a variety of grape believed to have come from this desert region of what is now southern Iran, just west of the Straits of Hormuz. Strabo (15.2.14) writes "It is from this vine that 'the Carmanian' as we here call it originated — a vine which often has clusters of even two cubits, these clusters being thick with large grapes; and it is reasonable to suppose that this vine is more flourishing there than here." Pliny does not mention the Carmanian vine per se, but does report on the vines of Cyprus, which may be the same variety as the Carmanian. In writing about Margiana (a region of what is now northwest Afghanistan between the Murgab and the Amu-Darya Rivers), Strabo twice mentions the enormous clusters of grapes grown there (11.10.1 and 1.1.14): "They say it is oftentimes found that the trunk of the grape-vine can be encircled only by the out-stretched arms of two men, and that the cluster of grapes is two cubits long." Pliny (HN vi.64 (englished) ) says merely that it's sunny and vines grow there. See also Section 25 on large vines.
49. Radzivil in his Travels: Mikolaj Krzysztof Radziwill, 1549-1616, in his Podróz do Ziemi Swietej, Syrii i Egiptu, 1582-1584. An (English) ell is about 45 inches; hence the clusters measured about 34 inches around.
50. Ingred. of holy Perfume. Stacte, &c. Exod 30.34, 35. Exodus 30:34-35: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy." Said perfume was reserved for the use of God; in 38, "Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people." In the Vulgate, "dixitque Dominus ad Mosen sume tibi aromata stacten et onycha galbanen boni odoris et tus lucidissimum aequalis ponderis erunt omnia faciesque thymiama conpositum opere unguentarii mixtum diligenter et purum et sanctificatione dignissimum." As a proleptic note, the word "amber" does occur in the Bible, but refers to the color (literally, in the text: "the color of amber"; e.g., Ezekiel 8:2; see note 14 above). It is a translation of chashmal, whose exact meaning is uncertain; possibly bronze.
51. The Hebrew shekhayleth, of uncertain signification. Strong suggests it is from the same root as shakkal, to roar (like a lion), hence a lion, "through some obscure idea, perhaps that of peeling off by concussion of sound", which might fit with a shellfish of sufficient proportions. The Greek ὄνυξ ("onyx") refers to the operculum of the bivalve Strombus, which when burnt yields a sweet smell (see, e.g., Dioscorides 1.2); but as this is itself a translation, it signifies only if it is itself correct and refers to the same substance as the Hebrew. On that, opinion is divided, some holding it to refer either to benzoin (from Styrax benzoin, a tree not native to the Holy Land) or to bdellium.
52. Unguis odorata or Blatta Byzantina, the operculum of a marine gastropod (Strombus?) is still used in India for perfume; among other things, it is boiled to perfume medicines. Browne not infrequently mentions as unpleasant odors and flavors that are often considered pleasing by others or in other times; see note 54 below.
53. The Hebrew chelbenaw, a resin, from a root meaning "fat" and hence "finest"; the Greek γαλβάνη. Probably Ferula galbaniflua and/or related species (Moldenke quotes authorities saying that there are nine species in the area); possibly Galbanum officinale; possibly some combination.
54. There may have been more than one galbanum in commerce. It is usually mentioned as smelling sweet up until the 17th century, when there are many references to its nastiness, as well as more references to its sweetness. The Oxford dictionary quotes Wilson's Belphegor (1691), v.ii, "I'll have ye burnt in effigy, with brimstone, galbanum, aristolochia, hypericon, and rue." On the other hand, we may note that Shakespeare refers to rue as "sweet", an adjective to which most people would take exception. These things are largely a matter of taste. Wilkin says that galbanum is "a gum issuing from an umbelliferous plant, growing in Persia and Africa; — when first drawn, white and soft; — afterwards reddish; — of a strong smell, bitter and acid, inflammable, and soluble in water." It is to be noted that the bases and fixatives of perfumes do not always smell very good on their own.
55. Stacte, Hebrew nataph, another resin; the finest resin of myrrh. Myrrh is the natural exudation of a small scrubby tree (Commiphora) that grows in Arabia. Cinnamon and cassia are not products of Arabia. On Cinnamon, cassia and calamus, see Ezekiel 27:19 in the KJV. On the entire mess, see Moldenke, especially s.vv. Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum zeylandicum. Presumably it is the confluence of the KJV and the Vulgate that impels Browne to drag in cinnamon at this point; for the Vulgate reads "stacte et calamus" where the KJV reads "cassia and calamus".
56. See also Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book VII, chapter 7.
57. Husks eaten by the Prodigal. Luke 15.16: " And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him"; in the Vulgate, "et cupiebat implere ventrem suum de siliquis quas porci manducabant et nemo illi dabat". Most translations have either "husk" or "pod".
58. Ceratonia siliqua. Commentators, for once in nearly universal agreement, believe that the locusts eaten by John the Baptist were the pods of this tree, the carob. See also Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book VII, chapter 9.
59. Pliny HN xiv.103 (englished).
60. Cucumbers, &c. of Ægypt. Numbers 11:5: "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick." The cucumber, of unknown origin, formed a staple of the Egyptian diet for many centuries, or even millennia (certainly well into the modern era, if not still). A note in Wilkin seeks to upgrade the common cucumber probably referred to here: "Hasselquist thus describes the cucumis chate, or queen of cucumbers. 'It grows in the fertile earth around Cairo, after the inundation of the Nile, and not in any other place in Egypt, nor in any other soil. It ripens with water melons: its flesh is almost of the same substance, but is not near so cool. The grandees eat it as the most pleasant food they find, and that from which they have least to apprehend. It is the most excellent of this tribe of any yet known." Moldenke describes this plant as being covered with soft transparent hairs and having a melon-like flesh that is more watery than that of the common cucumber.
61. Herodotus ii.125.6, quoting, with some dubiety, what his interpreter told him was carved on the pyramid. For another take on this question, see this web site, where the authors take the hieroglyphs to refer to types of stone or minerals, classified by smell.
62. Prosper Alpini, 1553-1617, who wrote a number of works about Egypt, including Historia Ægyptæ Naturalis, in two parts, De plantis Ægyptis, and De medicina Ægyptiorum.
63. Forbidden Fruit. Gen. 2.17, &c.
64. Wilkin: "Jewish tradition considers it to have been the citron, which in all probability was the fruit spoken of in Cant. ii,13, rather than the apple, as it is translated." See also Pseudodoxia Epidemica VII.1 and notes on the forbidden fruit. Moldenke, after considering other claimants and rather arbitrarily dismissing most of them, plumps for the apricot. As it is entirely unclear that the tree exists anywhere outside the Garden, the whole discussion seems, if you'll forgive the expression, fruitless.
65. Gen. 3:7, in the KJV: "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons". The Hebrew tenah may be of foreign derivation. Wilkin notes "The fig tree is called taneh, or the 'grief tree', from its rough leaves. Hence the Rabbins and others represent Adam to have selected it as a natural sackcloth, to express his contrition." Many authorities, however, and even the poet Milton, believe that it is not the fruit-tree that is referred to, but one of the other figs, many of which have hairless leaves.
66. In a statue alleged (in an inscription on its base) to be by Praxiteles, formerly in the Piazza del Monte Cavallo, or Piazza del Quirinale; it (and its mate, allegedly by Phidias) represent the Dioscuri, not two attempts at Augustus and Bucephalus. The fig leaves were probably the result of contemporary prudery, not of ancient iconicism. See this article and the accompanying (bad) steel engraving from the Penny Magazine for an early nineteenth century view of it. See also this article by Hülsen (in Italian) on the question of such attributions.
67. I.e., the condylomata, called "ficus", that are secondary characteristics of syphillis. Other condylomata, as well as piles, are sometimes called "figs". The name is due not to the position but to the appearance.
68. Balsam. Oil. Luke 10.34: He "went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him." Judean, or Jericho, Balsam, Balanites ægyptica, mentioned (three times) in Jeremiah.
69. See Mrs. Grieve s.v. "Olive" on the medicinal uses of olive oil. See also Hippocrates.
70. Pulse of Daniel. Dan. 1.12. "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink." (In 1:8 the Jews explain that they do not wish to eat the king's meat or drink his wine for fear of defiling themselves; the "proof" is that they can flourish on a rougher diet.) Pulse = Hebrew zeronim, probably dried beans or lentils (or both). Hasselquist in Iter Palæstinum suggests the parched legumes and grains consumed in some parts of the Near East and North Africa: "On the road from Acra to Seide we saw a herdsman eating his dinner, consisting of half-ripe ears of wheat, which he toasted, and ate with as good an appetite as a Turk does his pillaus."
71. "Tenta nos obsecro servos tuos diebus decem, et dentur nobis legumina ad vescendum, et aqua ad bibendum."
72. I.e., sown vegetables.
73. Benito Arias Montano, 1527-1598, in his "Antwerp Polyglot", the Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Græce, & Latine.
74. ὄσπρια, the word the LXX uses for both the passages in Daniel (Hebrew zeronim) and in II Samuel 17:28 (Hebrew kali).
75. Potibazis. Athenæus XI.503 f, quoting Dion's Persian History, "ἐστὶ δὲ ποτίβαζις ἄρτος κρίθινος καὶ πύρινος ὀπτὸς καὶ κυπαρίσσου στέφανος καὶ οἶνος κεκραμένος ἐν ᾠῷ χρυσῷ, οὗ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς πίνει." The "oval Cup" is a "golden Egg" ("ᾠόν χρύσον"). A note in the Loeb edition: "The word ποτιβασις (without accent in A) was traced by Scaliger to a Hebrew base variously rendered by τράπεζα or δεῖπνον in the Septuagint, e.g. Daniel I:5", ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλικῆς τραπέζης. Pathbag, of Persian origin, rendered "king's meat" in the KJV.
76. Jacob ate pulses before tricking his brother, whereafter he ate venison; Genesis 25:30-34. On Rome and pulses, see Pliny HN xviii, especially 104. For pultiphagus, see e.g. Plautus Mostelleria III.ii.137. The Latin Pistor, baker, is from pinsor to beat (whence e.g. pistillum, pestle). See Pliny xviii.107. For an example of a "plump and fair" Daniel, see for instance Michelangelo's Daniel in the Sistine Chapel.
77. For example, iv.155 ff., where Cynuklos goes on at great length about a diet of pulses.
78. Daniel was born about 620 BC. The first deportations of Jewish youth were in 605. Cyrus's army conquered Babylon in October of 539 BC, and the text specifically says (twice) that Daniel was then alive: in Daniel 1:21 "And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus" and 6:28: "So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian". The last recorded events of Daniel's life seem to have taken place in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, 536 (Daniel 10-11), when he would have been about 84.
79. Jacob's Rods. Gen. 30. 37. In the KJV, "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods"; in the Vulgate: "tollens ergo Iacob virgas populeas virides et amigdalinas et ex platanis ex parte decorticavit eas detractisque corticibus in his quae spoliata fuerant candor apparuit illa vero quae integra erant viridia permanserunt atque in hunc modum color effectus est varius". A strict dictionary translation of the Hebrew would be white tree, almond, and plane, but that begs the question, as the definition of "plane" is an abyss of controversy and then what's the white tree? It is Poplar, say many, including apparently Jerome, adding, for our confusion, "virides"; storax, say others. The entire episode is in any case, as Browne will point out, very peculiar. The Basic English Bible throws out the lot and says simply "trees".
80. G. Venetus, Problem. 200. Francisci Georgii Veneti (Francesco Giorgio), In Scripturam Sacram problemata, Venice, 1563.
81. 'armon (plane) and rimmon (pomegranate) in the Hebrew; perhaps the similarity of the words accounts for the translation. Darby has "maple" (the "wild plane" of Britain being in fact the maple Acer platanoides.)
82. Lilies of the Field. Matt. 6.28. "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin". (Also in Luke 12:27: "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these".)
83. This is perhaps the most hotly contested (and hence most popular) of the Bible's cruces. Many hold out for the anemone, Anemone coronaria, but the reasoning behind this choice is somewhat specious, basically resting on the premiss that the flower must be common (not necessarily; I could name a few dozen flowers that are "of the field" and yet not common). The Greek is κρίνον (which name shows up in Crinum, a genus of plants from the new world, Asia, and South Africa that is necessarily out of contention, but which nevertheless is still occasionally thrust into the dispute). Wilkin quotes from Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 419: "At a few miles from Adowa, we discovered a new and beautiful species of amaryllis, which bore from ten to twelve spikes of bloom on each stem, as large as those of the belladonna, springing from one common receptacle. The general colour of the corolla was white, and every petal was marked with a single streak of bright purple down the middle. The flower was sweet scented, and its smell, though much more powerful, resembled that of the lily of the valley. This superb plant excited the admiration of the whole party; and it brought immediately to my recollection the beautiful comparison used on a particular occasion by our Saviour, 'I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.' " As often in these cases, the exact identification of "lily", if there is one, is not essential to the meaning, but people do like to argue.
84. Λείριον occurs in the Homeric Hymns, 2.427, in a list of attractive flowers, where it is usually taken to be a lily, probably Lilium candidum, the Madonna lily. In other sources, the word is sometimes taken to refer either to the autumn or to the tazetta daffodil. In the context, it might be well to remember the wide latitude of the English lily, which is used to refer to a number of lily-like plants, as well as a few not-so-lily-like plants, which are not considered lilies botanically. At least not always considered lilies; it seems that every great plant classifier takes at least one destructive romp through the lily fields in the course of his career, and a plant that was a lily fifty years ago may or may not be a lily today, depending.
85. Cant. 2:16. Usually taken to be the hyacinth. The problem is compounded by the Hebrew word shoshan, which is also the name of Susa or Shushan; Strong's concordance says "any lily", in accord with Browne's argument.
86. Cant. 5:13; "His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrhe."
87. Moldenke believes that only in this passage is the reference to Lilium candidum, because of the reference to dropping myrrh; the flower is almost overpoweringly fragrant.
88. Lilium martagon; Lilium candidum; and Fritillaria imperialis (whose bulb, by the way, smells exactly like elephants, or, according to other noses than mine, like foxes; it can be smelled in the spring even when buried two feet deep). Others have suggested the crown imperial for this passage, but the plant is not common in the Holy Land and may not have grown there at all in Biblical times.
89. 1 Kings 7:26: "And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths." The lily-work in this part of the Bible is probably (on archeological and historical grounds) lotus-work (like that of the Egyptians, or Arts and Crafts). But here we come up against another problem: what is Browne talking about? He seems to believe that it is the cup itself being described as shaped like a lily; I take the passage to mean that the brim was ornamented with lilies (or lotuses). In addition, which lily is he talking about? Presumably the martagon, as the candidum lily could hardly be called rounded at the bottom. But it sounds more like a tulip to me.
90. Cant. 2.1
91. Convallaria majalis, which does not occur in the area. Suggestions for this passage include hyacinth, Sternbergia lutea, and Tulipa montana.
92. ὀινάνϑη, usually translated dropwort, Athenæus xv689a and c, from which perfume is made; Gerard's filipendula, modern Oenanthe spp. The oil of the water dropwort was still in the pharmacopeia in Mrs. Grieve's day: water fennel. πόϑος: Theophrastus 6.8.3, where he says that there are two types, one of which is like a hyacinth, whatever that may mean: Liddell & Scott say Delphinium ajacis, and the other, without color, like an asphodel and used at tombs (or at funerals). The word means, roughly, "regret" (cf. English "forget-me-not"). Anguillara: Luigi (Squalermo) Anguillara (born in Anguillara di Sabazia), c. 1512-1570, botanist and pharmacologist; Cordus: Valerius Cordus, 1515-1544, Germany apothecary and professor (at Wittemburg), whose Dispensatorium, sive, Pharmacorum conficidendorum ratio went through a number of editions after its publication, with such distinguished editors as Gesner and Rondelet (for the 1651/2 edition).
93. Lily of the valley is currently classed in the family Liliaceae; it is rhizomatous rather than bulbous. (The question is of only mild pertinence, however; it does not matter whether the lily is a lily, only whether it is the plant in question here.) Lobelius: Mathias de L'Obel, 1538-1616, physician, botanist and pharmacologist; his Plantarum seu Stirpium icones is one of the great works of botany. Bauhinius: Caspar Bauhin, 1560-1624, author of a number of works cited by Browne; his Theatri botanici sive Index in Theophrasti Dioscoridis, Plinii et botanicorum qui à seculo scripserunt attempts to identify and classify according to a modern system plants mentioned in a number of ancient (or old) sources.
94. Fitches, Cummin, &c. in Isa. 28.25. "When he [the plowman] hath made plain the face thereof [i.e., his field], doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?" The Vulgate: "nonne cum adaequaverit faciem eius seret gith et cyminum sparget et ponet triticum per ordinem et hordeum et milium et viciam in finibus suis". Fitch (or vetch), definitely a mistranslation of the Hebrew qetsach, probably black cumin or nutmeg-flower (Nigella sativa), whose seeds are used as a pepper-like condiment; cummin (= Hebrew cammon), Cuminum cyminum. Darby translates "dill", which has the double advantage of (1) looking like Nigella, and (2) having seeds that are used as a spice. Douay (following the Vulgate) gives "gith", which properly means Nigella, although it is applied as well to a lychnis (Lychnis githago).
Rye (= Hebrew kuccemeth) should be "spelt" (Triticum spelta or Triticum æstivum var. spelta), and thus read the ASV and the Basic English Bibles, the latter having apparently decided that while "kinds of seed" is good enough for the fitches and the cumin, your average 6-year-old will know what spelt is). The KJV confusingly translates the same word as "fitches" elsewhere (e.g., Ezek. 4:9). "Millet" is usually Panicum miliaceum, but the word is occasionally used for other millet-like grains.
95. Melanthium, a name used for various plants, especially Agrostemma (= Lychnis) Githago, the corn-cockle and (by Fuchs, Primi stirpium) for Coriandrum sativum, coriander. The modern genus bearing the name is of the new world. On gith and nigella, see the previous note.
96. Cumin, Cuminum cyminum, highly valued in ancient and medieval cookery and still widely used throughout the world. Interestingly, Wilkin, in those days before Indian restaurants, felt obliged to explain cumin to his readers: "An umbelliferous plant resembling fennel; producing a bitterish, warm, aromatic seed". (Cilantro, the leaves of the coriander plant, is another herb whose palatability is disputed; Mrs. Grieve says "The inhabitants of Peru are so fond of the taste and smell of this herb that it enters into almost all their dishes, and the taste is often objectionable to any but a native. Both in Peru and in Egypt, the leaves are put into soup.")
97. Pliny HN xx.82; in xix.160 he says: "condimentorium tamen omnium, quæ fastidiis…, cuminum amicissimum".
98. Matthew 23:23 (KJV): "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone"; in the Vulgate, "vae vobis scribae et Pharisaei hypocritae quia decimatis mentam et anethum et cyminum et reliquistis quae graviora sunt legis iudicium et misericordiam et fidem haec oportuit facere et illa non omittere". RSV, Weymouth and Young all give "dill"; the Basic English lumps all together as "sweet-smelling plants". ἄνηϑον is a form of ἄνισον, the Greek word referring to both anise and dill. Latin distinguishes between anison (= anise) and anethum (= dill), both derived from the same Greek word. In any case, most commentators agree with Browne: it's dill.
99. In Book VIII, which treats largely of grains, Βρόμος is mentioned but twice (at most; one reading is conjectured after Pliny): VIII.iv.1, where "oats", if they be oats, are placed in the class of grains having several coats; and in VIII.iv.2, where oats are called "wild and uncultivated": Avena barbata. Dioscorides 2.94.
100. Pliny HN xviii.149 on Germans and oats; see also xxvi.58, the only place I have found in the Historia where the word "pulticula" occurs.
101. Oats were probably unknown in the Holy Land in early Biblical times. Smith's Bible Dictionary (s.v. corn) says that oats are mentioned only in rabbinical writings and not in the Bible itself. Three sorts of barley were in common cultivation in the ancient Near East: Hordeum distichon, H. vulgare, and H. hexastichon. Rye, if the plant now understood by that name, needs a colder climate than can be afforded thereabouts, and therefore almost certainly was not cultivated.
102. Ears of Corn. Matt. 12. 1. Which reads, in the KJV: "At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat." Moldenke quotes William M. Thomson (whose The Land and the Book, or, Biblical Illustrations Drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery of the Holy Land went through a number of editions following the publication of volume 1 in 1859) on the use of parched wheat as food in the Holy Land: "a quantity of the best ears (of wheat), not too ripe, are plucked with the stalks attached; these are tied into small parcels, a blazing fire is kindled with dry grass and thorn bushes, and the corn heads are held in it until the chaff is mostly burned off". When done, it forms a "favourite food all over the country".
103. ῎Αλφιτον (or more usually in the plural, ἄλφιτα), barley-meal, groats, meal; sufficiently common to be used by Aristophanes in the general meaning of "daily bread". On polenta, see note 97 and Pliny HN xviii.72; see also xxiv.3 and xxvii.59. Cf. also the Vulgate, Lev. 23:14: "panem et pulentam et pultes non comedetis ex segete usque ad diem qua offeratis ex ea Deo vestro praeceptum est sempiternum in generationibus cunctisque habitaculis vestris", where the KJV translates "parched corn". ὠμήλυσις = bruised or "ground" meal of barley or of wheat, used mostly as a poultice.
104. Stubble of Ægypt. Exod. 5. 7, &c. Exodus 5:7-9, 12-14, in the KJV: "Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words. ... [5:12] So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw." It is not clear precisely which grain(s) afforded the stubble, but that question hardly affects Browne's point.
105. Lib. 18. c. 7 Nat. Hist. Pliny xviii.169. See also Harmer's Observation LXXII, which would suggest even greater difficulty in the gathering of stubble. Thomas Harmer (1714-1788), Observations on Various Passages in Scripture, &c., which went through a number of editions after its publication in 1775. Harmer was a pre-internet surfer: he remained in his village in England, collecting information for his volumes from travellers. As his fame grew, so too did his sources of information. He himself never left England.
106. Flowers of the Vine, Cant. 2. 13. In the KJV: "The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away"; in the Vulgate, "ficus protulit grossos suos vineae florent dederunt odorem surge amica mea speciosa mea et veni". The "tender grape" translates the Hebrew cemador, grape blossom or grape bud. (The "green figs" are the "young" fruit which has overwintered on the tree.)
107. Pliny NH xiv.98 (Englished by Holland), not of Vitis vinifera, but apparently of Vitis labrusca, which has a rather heavy scent. Mentioned as well by Dioscorides. If we have οἰνάνϑιον as wine flavored with grape flowers, why not have oiνάνϑη above be grape flowers? (Consider also the modern "May-wine", in which the dried flowers of sweet woodruff are infused, as well as the classic recipe for clafoutis, which calls for the pits of the cherries to be left in for flavor.) Cadus, a kind of urn or amphora for containing wine (or other things); hence a measure, about 1-1/2 amphorae Atticae, or about 72 (American) pints.
108. Acts 2.13. The response of some to the Apostles' talking in tongues, a response that has been repeated on similar occasions in the years since, we might add. "New wine" would not necessarily have been quite that new, as it of course requires time for fermenting; it would be the wine of grapes harvested the previous autumn. Compare the modern Beaujolais nouveau, which becomes available, although scarcely drinkable, or only by Americans, early in the year following its harvest, and Ciliegiolo di Narni, which is actually drunk that young. Browne is, however, apparently correct in objecting to the translation itself, as γλευκος (usually) means a sweet young wine (or even grape juice). But sweet wines can be markedly alcoholic, even young: look at a bottle of "Auslese".
109. Pliny HN xiv.83, or in Holland's English.
110. The Olive Leaf in Gen. 8. 11. "And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." "Some authorities," writes Moldenke, "are of the opinion that the 'olive leaf' ... may have been from Tamarix mannifera.... That the olive was not yet known at the time of Noah seems difficult to believe, although that is the claim made by those who maintain the tamarisk for this passage." The Hebrew zayit is seemingly correctly translated "olive" elsewhere in the Bible, so why not here?
111. Theophrast. Hist. Lib. 4. cap. 7, 8. Plin. lib. 13. cap. ultimo. Pliny, NH xiii.139 ff.; or in Holland's English.
112. The interesting literary form "acron" is apparently due to a (somewhat rare) Hellenizing influence. The modern form "acorn", on the other hand, seems to be due to a folk-etymologizing form "ak-corn" or "oak-corn". The word, if unaffected by such ditherings, would probably be "acern" or "acren" (hard c's). Cf. "acre" from the same root, "aecr", a field.
113. Grain of Mustard-seed in S. Matt. 13. 31, 32. Despite much ingenious and interesting speculation — and some bitterness, appropriate in this context — most commentators agree that the parables refer to the standard black mustard, Brassica (or Sinapis) nigra. It is an annual that can reach ten (or, some say, fifteen) feet. Its stems become woody and strong, especially in the autumn. Compare the sunflower, on which quite large birds can and do perch, if not lodge. The Greek, as Browne points out below, may be simply "perch" or "settle", although its literal meaning is "to pitch a tent", implying a meaning very similar to English "lodge" or "encamp".
114. It is interesting to note this early version of the "biggest marrow" contest and to speculate upon the early traces of modern British cuisine implicit in the sizes and likely textures of those cabbages.
115. "fit arbor" says the Vulgate.
116. Lemnius' Herbs & Trees in the Bible (1566) collates a number of Talmudic references to mustard plants (usually gigantic mustard plants), if they are mustard plants.
117. Dan 4. 9. Ps. 1. 14. 12. [Psalms 14.1 and 15.9. I do not find the word in Daniel.]
118. The Rod of Aaron. Numb. 17. 8. The Hebrew shaqed, almond, means, roughly, "wake-tree", an allusion to its blooming so early in the spring.
119. Shacher from Schachar, festinus fuit or maturit.
120. Jer. 1. 11., which has "my Word" for "the Word".
121. Eccles. 12. 5. KJV: "Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets" (7: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it").
122. Numbers 17:1-3: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man's name upon his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers."
123. Coins showing a leafing branch on the reverse are depicted e.g. in Villalpandus, Apparatus Urbis ac Templi Hierosolymitani. They are invariably fakes meant to be coins of the second revolt. On the obverse they commonly show a steaming cup or censer, a misunderstanding of the cup or covered cup frequently depicted on genuine coins; for that reason they are sometimes called "censer-pieces". Genuine (and false) coins of the two revolts often carry the name of Jerusalem written in more or less modern Hebrew characters in one form or another; hence, "Jerusalem shekels". The almond itself is almost unknown on Jewish coins; the item taken for the rod of Aaron by Browne and others of his day is, according to G.F. Hill (in his appendix to Theodore Reinach's Jewish Coins, Chicago: Argonaut, 1966) the palm, often shown with dates. I have tracked down two coins that are alleged to have almonds: both are second revolt coins, a denarius and a bronze; British Museum Catalogue, Greek Coins of Palestine 33-13 and 38-5. "Samaritan shekels", which are genuine, are so called because they bear inscriptions in an old form of Hebrew script which was thought to be Samaritan rather than proper Hebrew (thanks to Bob Leonard of the Numismatics List for this information). Tyrian shekels, said by the Talmud to be the only acceptable money for Temple offerings, bear eagles or, less commonly, pomegranates, but not to my knowledge palms, dates, or almonds. The entire question possesses somewhat more than an academic interest to certain groups in Israel who are attempting to revive, in one form or another, temple offerings.
124. The Vine in Gen. 49. 11. Wilkin: "In some parts of Persia, it was formerly the custom to turn their cattle into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse on the vines, some of which are so large that a man can scarcely compass their trunks in his arms."
125. Plin. lib. 14. Pliny HN xiv.9 or in Holland's English on all three subjects: tree-like vines, the statue of Jupiter, and the stairs made of a single vine that reached the roof of the temple at Ephesus. See also the discussion above, Section 9 and note, on large clusters of grapes. Such clusters imply a very strong vine.
126. Rose of Jericho. Ecclus. 24. 14. Ecclus 24:11 ff. is a treasure-trove or luxuriant garden of plant imagery. According to Moldenke, the majority opinion is that the rose in this particular passage is oleander, Nerium oleander. The question, in myriad forms, has excited much interest over the years, and pops up from time to time in such places as Notes and Queries. See also note 36.
127. Usually the plant referred to by this name is Anastatica hierochuntica, a very low, woody annual that, when it ripens, curls into a ball like tumbleweed. As Browne notes later, it will revive on being soaked in water. It was (and may still be for all I know) largely sold as a souvenir of the Holy Land.
128. A note in Wilkin: "Sir R. K. Porter gives the following description of the oriental rose trees probably here intended: — 'On first entering this bower of fairy land, I was struck with the appearance of two rose trees: full fourteen feet high, laden with thousands of flowers, in every degree of expansion, and of a bloom and delicacy of scent, that imbued the whole atmosphere with the most exquisite perfume; indeed, I believe that in no country of the world, does the rose grow in such perfection, as in Persia, in no country is it so cultivated, and prized by the natives. Their gardens and courts are crowded with its plants, their rooms ornamented with vases filled with its gathered bunches, and every bath strewed with the full blown flowers, plucked from the ever replenished stems.'" Sir Robert Ker Porter (1821-1822): Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820. With numerous engravings of portraits, costumes, antiquities, &c. (2 volumes). London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. Unfortunately, Persia is quite a long way from the Holy Land, and Sir R.K.'s description is quite a long way in time from Ecclesiasticus. Nevertheless, there are four common(ish) species of roses native to the Holy Land, and a number of others grow in restricted areas of the mountains. Therefore, a plant referred to as a rose might well be a rose.
129. Turpentine Tree in Ecclus. 24. 16. 24:16 in the KJV; in the Vulgate, 24:22: "ego quasi terebinthus extendi ramos meos et rami mei honoris et gratiæ". Pistacia terebinthus var. palæstina, a deciduous tree (pace Wilkin, who seems to confuse it with the so-called camphor tree) which yields "Cyprus turpentine". Moldenke has the following to say about it: "In the time of Josephus (about 37-95 A.D.) there was a giant terebinth tree near Hebron, which legend stated had been there 'since the creation of the world' [BJ iv.9.7; cf. Ant. i.10.4, where Josephus speaks of the oak Ogyges, which may or may not be the same tree]. Under this tree the captive Jews were sold by Titus Vespasian in 69 A.D. [the story is said to be in a letter of Jerome; but, so far as I can make out, it was under Hadrian in 119 when these particular slaves were sold in this place, after the reduction of Jerusalem following the Bar-Cochba rebellion; I have not yet found a record of slaves having been sold under this tree by Titus, which would presumably be in Josephus], and it is supposed to be the tree under which Abraham entertained the three angels (Genesis 18: 8). The tree died about 330 A.D. [according to Eusebius] and has since been replaced by an oak. The Hebrew word in the text is 'etz', the literal meaning of which is simply 'tree'." (P. 178) On the terebinth (or oak) and its successor, see this web page). According to J. Smith, an oak tree near Hebron in the early nineteenth century was held in such high esteem by the Mohametan Palestinians that they refused to approach it with any cutting implements, even after a major storm broke a large branch, lest they should lose their first-born sons.
130. Terebinthus in Macedonia fruticat, in Syria, magna est. Lib. 13. Plin. A summary of HN xiii.54 (in the English by Holland).
131. Hosea 4. 13. The KJV translates "elms"; most other translations have "terebinth".
132. Erasmus in his Adagia 4.3.33.
133. Pomegranate in 1 Sam. 14. 2. Mind you, the Bible (in most versions) does not say that Saul pitched a tent there nor that the six hundred men with him fit under the pomegranate tree, which, at a maximum, can reach about 30 feet.
134. The Vulgate: "Saul morabatur in extrema parte Gabaa sub malogranato quae erat in Magron".
135. Judges 20. 45, 47. Ch. 21. 13. Rimmon (or Remmon) occurs as a place name in Joshua, Numbers, Judges, 1 Chronicles (where it's big enough to have suburbs), Nehemiah, etc.; as a personal name in II Sam. 4:2 ("Rimmon the Beerothite"), and as the name of an Assyrian deity in 2 Kings 5. "Rock Rimmon": see Judges 20:45 ff. Six hundred men hide there.
136. A Green Field in Wisd. 19. 7. (where the Vulgate has de profundo nimio). See also Ralegh's Historie of the World, Book II, Chapter III: "The Hebrews have also another fancy, that the Red sea was divided into twelve parts, and that every tribe passed over in a path apart, because it is written in the 135th Psalm, according to the Vulgar, Divisit mare rubrum in divisiones; 'He divided the Red sea in divisions.' Also that the bottom of the sea became as a green field or pasture." The rejection of the last belief is unsupported by the text (the sentence as quoted is indeed the entire argument). Later Ralegh mentions that any red color in the Red Sea may be due to red plants.
137. See also Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book VI chapter 9 on the Red Sea, as well as the previous note.
138. Pliny HN xiii.135 ff. (English); Theophrastus
139. Sycamore. The word occurs eight times in the KJV, most noted by Browne below: at 1 Kings 10:27, 1 Chron. 27:28, 2 Chron. 1:15 and 9:27, Ps. 78:47, Amos 7:14, and Isaiah 9:10, representing the Hebrew shaqan; at Luke 19:4, representing the Greek συκομορος, "mulberry-fig" or "fig-mulberry". Ficus sycomorus, "a strong-growing, robust, wide-spreading tree of great importance and extensive use, growing 30 or 40 feet tall, sometimes attaining a trunk circumference of 20 or more feet, with a crown to 120 feet in diameter.... The fruit is produced abundantly in clusters on all parts of the tree, both on young and old branches, and even on the old limbs and trunk itself. It is very similar to that of the common fig, only smaller and much inferior in quality. Nevertheless being very sweet to the taste, it is used extensively for food in Palestine and Egypt...." Its wood, although soft, is durable. It was used for mummy-cases. (Moldenke, p. 107) It is not the sycamore of England, a variety of maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) nor any of the various species of planes (Platanus) also called sycamores.
140. The Septuagint confuses συκομορος, the sycamore, and συκαμινος, the black mulberry, which word occurs (properly) in Luke 17:6. They are different trees. For further confusion, Browne's description here is of the συκομορος, although he calls it συκαμινος.
141. Isa. 9.10. The Vulgate reads "lateres ceciderunt sed quadris lapidibus aedificabimus sycomoros succiderunt sed cedros inmutabimus"; note the humble status of the sycomore, as in 1 Kings 10.27 below.
142. 1 Chron. 27. 28.
143. 1 Kings 10. 27. "And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance."
144. Amos. 7. 14. Gatherer is a mistranslation; tender or dresser, the translation of several other English Bibles (including the RSV) is closer. The Vulgate has vellicans, "plucker". That word is rather strong and not normally used of gathering fruit; "thin" may have been in Jerome's mind. The Hebrew balac does not occur elsewhere and is a "primitive root". The fruit of the sycomore is better if it is split or punctured some days before being gathered. That job, along with probably thinning the fruit and so on, was part of Amos' duties as he wandered about with his herds.
145. Psal. 78. 47.
146. Luke 17.6, where the Greek has "συκαμινος", mulberry, as above. While the tree is smaller than the sycomore, it is extremely hardy and long-lived. The mulberry occurs in the Old Testament (Hebrew baca = "weeping") as well, but that name is now often referred to Populus euphratica, a small weeping tree, just to keep the game going.
147. According to Smith's Bible Dictionary, the tree was still being shown in the 19th century; see also this page for the record of a Confederate soldier's visit. According to the version of Otto Meinardus's Holy Family in Egypt on line at Copt Net, the tree was actually planted in 1672 and was nearly destroyed in 1906, but a shoot remains alive (or did in 1962). The legend is that Mary and Jesus (and presumably Joseph as well) were being pursued by enemies during the flight to Egypt; the sycamore opened to provide a hiding place within its trunk, opening up again when the danger had passed. It might be noted in this context that the sycamore was associated with the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who herself emerges from a sycamore; such associations are very enduring.
148. D. Greaves. (Dr.) John Greaves, 1602-1652, author of Pyramidographia and other works, especially interested in Roman weights and measures.
149. It also helps if the tree is there. If it isn't, it's very difficult to climb.
150. Increase of Seed 100 fold in Matt. 13. 23. "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Also 13:3-8: "And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold." Speculation on the average yield of grains in Jesus' day centers around about 50-60 times what is sown, although yields in the area in more recent times, but without modern agricultural techniques, have been around 20 times.
151. centessimal in the text, but corrected in the Errata. This is the earliest instance of the word, and the only instance in this sense, recorded in the OED (where it is given as centessimal), ignoring the occurrence two paragraphs up.
152. Hist. Nat. lib. 18, cap. 21. An epitome of Pliny NH xviii.94-95, which reads: "misit ex eo loco divo Augusto procurator eius ex uno grano, vix credibile dictu, CCCC paucis minus germina, exstantque de ea re epistulae. misit et Neroni similiter CCCLX stipulas ex uno grano. cum centesimo quidem et Leontini Siciliae campi fundunt aliique et tota Baetica et in primis Aegyptus. fertilissima tritici genera ramosum ac quod centigranium vocant. inventus est iam et scapus unus centum fabis onustus."
153. Wilkin: "The manuscript in the British Museum reads, 'no less than three hundred stalks and ears.' — MS. Sloan. 1841."
154. Gen. 26. 12.
155. "Alexandrus Guagninus", Alexander Gwagnin, 1538(?)-1614. Rerum Polonicarum in three volumes; Frankfort, 1594.
156. Sabbatical Crop: that is, the crop of the sixth year, as the seventh year the fields must lie fallow. Lev. 25, especially 21-22: "Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store."
157. Gen. 41. 56.
158. Gen. 45. 9, 11.
160. Theoph. Hist. l. 8.
161. Harmer, among others, notes that granaries of the type mentioned by Browne (that is, bins built off the ground) were common in Egypt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But Joseph's seeds were most probably kept in caves, which provide nearly ideal conditions of low temperatures, dark, and low, constant humidity (like a refrigerator); or possibly they were buried in earthenware jugs, and/or in trenches of the kind described by Pliny? It is also entirely possible that enough crops were harvested each year of the seven to provide at least some seed crop, perhaps enough to replace the amount of the original seed crop that died each year, even if not enough to feed the population. By the same token, it is also nearly certain that the fifth of the crop kept during the seven years prior to the famine was in addition to that portion normally retained for seed.
162. Ægypt ὁμιχλώδης, καὶ δροσοβόλος. Vid. Theophrastum. [De causis plantarum VI.iii]
163. In antiquity, a common theory of the derivation of pyramid. Another antique theory derives it from πυρ, fire. The word is probably of Egyptian origin, but all is speculation.
164. Gen. 41. 48.
165. Olive Tree in Rom. 11. 24.
166. "How geographically answerable" — Ms. Sloan. 1841
167. De causis Plant. Lib. 1 Cap. 7.
168. καλλικαρπεῖν οὐχ ἕξει
169. De horticultura. Johann Lauremberg, 1590-1658.
170. καλλιελαιον Rom. 11. 24. = "good olive tree" = "domesticated olive tree", in contrast to the αγριελαιος = αγριελαια or "field olive" = "wild olive tree". In this passage, some take this to mean the oleaster, not a true olive (although the word oleaster itself refers to both the wild olive, as Browne uses it, and the "Russian" olive or Eleagnus.) The passage would make no sense without this distinction; although the words are not particularly common, they are found here and there. The distinction could also be made by using ελαια = olive vs. ελαιος = wild olive, but it would not be as clear, and God knows what commentators would make of two words that that similar.
171. Geoponic. lib. 10.
172. Stork nesting on Firre Trees in Psal. 104. 17. The "fir tree", Hebrew berosh, is probably the Aleppo pine; the Hebrew meaning, literally, "noble tree". The word translated stork here is so translated in five of the six instances where it occurs; it seems to mean something along the lines of "faithful bird" (cf. the Roman Pietas, who is sometimes accompanied by a stork). A note in Wilkin: "Doubdan saw immense numbers of these bird in Galilee resting in the evening on trees. — Harmer's Observations, vol. iii, p. 323."
173. Bellonius de Avibus.
174. Balm, in Gen. 43.11. The Vulgate has "modicum resinæ". See also Sect. 14 and notes.
175. ῥητίνη, the resin of a pine tree; "probably a foreign word", say Liddell & Scott; OED goes a little further, "non-Indo-European word". The Hebrew of Gen. 43.11, צרי.
176. Moldenke, p. 177, in one of the more interesting articles: "The 'balm' of Genesis 43:11 must have been a native product of the land of Jacob, i.e., Canaan, unknown in Egypt at the time, and therefore could not have been Commiphora opobalsamum as has been suggested by so many writers, since that species is native to the mountainous portions of southern Arabia and trade in spices had not yet been established in Jacob's day. The same reason excludes the true myrrh, Commiphora myrrha, from this passage. It is now thought that the 'balm' of Jacob was the product of the lentisk or mastic tree, Pistacia lentiscus…. The 'balm' (Hebrew, 'tzrai') is a fragrant, terebinthine, gummy exudation of the sap secured by making incisions in the stem and branches, usually in the month of August. It is known in commerce as 'mastic', 'mastick', or 'mastich', and has been an article of trade since the earliest times."
177. theophrastus, pliny, galen [unfinished note]
178. According to Josephus, Bel. J. I.18.5. "Obtain'd" is a mild word for the transaction.
179. Josephus: Ant. J. VIII.6.6, with a fertur; to which Whiston adds the following note: "Some blame Josephus for supposing that the balsam tree might be first brought out of Arabia, or Egypt, or Ethiopia, into Judea, by this queen of Sheba, since several have said that of old no country bore this precious balsam but Judea; yet it is not only false that this balsam was peculiar to Judea, but both Egypt and Arabia, and particularly Sabea, had it; which last was that very country whence Josephus … intimates this queen might bring it first into Judea. Nor are we to suppose that the queen of Sabæa could well omit that such a present as this balsam tree would be esteemed by Solomon, in case it were then almost peculiar to her own country. Nor is the mention of balm or balsam, as carried by merchants, and sent as a present out of Judea by Jacob, to the governor of Egypt, Genesis 37:25; 43:11, to be alleged to the contrary, since what we there render balm or balsam, denotes rather that turpentine which we now call turpentine of Chio, or Cyprus, the juice of the turpentine tree, than this precious balm. This last is also the same word that we elsewhere render by the same mistake balm of Gilead; it should be rendered, the turpentine of Gilead, Jeremiah 8:22."
180. Pausanias, 9.28, who adds that in Arabia vipers live at the base of each tree, delighting in the balsam juice and the shade of the tree. Strabo, XVI.2. Diodorus Siculus II.48.9.
181. Theophrast. l. 9, c. 6., though I do not see any reerence there to Jericho.
182. The word is probably of Semitic origin, possibly from the Hebrew balsam = spice. The Hebrew word rendered "balm" is tsoriy or tsriy; it occurs six times in the Old Testament. Balsamum is not used for "balm" in the Vulgate nor is Greek βαλσαμον in the Septuagint. See, e.g., Ezekiel 27:17, in which both "resina" and "balsamum" occur: Iuda et terra Israhel ipsi institores tui in frumento primo balsamum et mel et oleum et resinam proposuerunt in nundinis tuis, KJV: "Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm."
183. Barley, Flax, &c. in Exod. 9. 31. In connection with this passage, consider Observation XVII from Harmer's Observations (1814 American edition, Vol. iv, pp. 16-17).
184. Linum foliculos germinavit, σπερματίζον, Septuag. (in Exodus 9.31).
185. Serotina, Lat. ὄψιμα Gr. (in Exodus 9:32).
186. Ruth 1:22
187. He was her husband, not her father, and died in the barley harvest. Judith 8:2-3: "And Manasses was her husband, of her tribe and kindred, who died in the barley harvest. For as he stood overseeing them that bound sheaves in the field, the heat came upon his head, and he fell on his bed, and died in the city of Bethulia: and they buried him with his fathers in the field between Dothaim and Balamo." Harmer speaks of the extreme heat of Egypt during April and May, and supposes the same to have been at least occasionally the case in Judæa.
188. Leviticus 23.
189. Joshua 2:6
190. Accounts of the Holy Land from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries widely record the drying of flax on rooftops (exposure to the sun helps to bleach the fibres), around Easter (or Passover), which is about the time of the barley harvest. Flax is usually retted before it is dried. The process takes several weeks. Therefore, if flax ripens six weeks or so before barley, is retted and then put to dry on the roofs, this would accord with the account of Joshua; Moses was certainly alive in January, and is said to have died in the Hebrew twelfth month, that is, probably February or March. After his death, the new leader Joshua sent the spies who were hidden by Rahab. They were hidden among the flax stalks Rahab was drying on her roof, some time after Passover, or, say, early April. For Pliny's account, see HN xix.?.
191. Harmer, Observation XVII, as above, supposes this double harvest to have been usual.
192. Exodus 9 ff. On the side of "one month" is Exodus 11:2; the account specifies only two periods, one of three days, one of seven, in so many words, in addition to a number of "tomorrows".
193. Radzevil's Travels. As in note 49.
194. Plin. lib. 18, cap. 18. HN xviii.78, of barley.
195. Typha, "a plant used for stuffing bolsters", according to Liddell & Scott; usually taken to be a reed, possibly Typha angustata, a relative of cat-tails. (And why not, we might ask, cat-tail itself? Once you chase off the red-winged blackbirds, I'd imagine the catkins would yield nice fluffy stuffing.) On rye, see also 94 and 101.
196. "White Amel-corn" or spelt.
197. Rice, probably not cultivated in the Middle East in Biblical times, but there I choose not to go, agreeing with Harmer (and with Browne), that it is sufficient "to observe, that some sorts of farinaceous plants were then but just sown, while others were drawing to maturity".
198. Sheaves of Grass, in Psal. 129. 6, 7. In the KJV: "Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up: Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom." See, once again, Harmer's Observation LXXII on the method of harvest in the middle east, by plucking up from the ground.
199. Columella lib. 2, cap. 22. Columella II.xxi.4: "nec foenum secare aut vincire aut vehere; ac ne vindemiam quidem cogi per religiones pontificum feriis licet", among a thorough list of such prohibitions.
200. Varro lib. 1, cap. 49. De re rustica I.xlix. Browne's text has peracescat for perarescat.
202. Juniper Tree, in 1 King. 19. 5, &c. 19:4-7: "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee." The Vulgate also has "iuniper". See the article on "Retama raetam" from the Moldenkes' Plants of the Bible on this question; on this particular passage, see Moldenke. The broom tree suggested as the correct translation here, it should be noted, is smaller than a juniper. Norman Douglas in his Birds and Beasts of the Greek Anthology runs into much the same question on the junipers of Greece, discussing it at some length; see Douglas on Junipers.
204. Psal. 120. 4. See, again, Moldenke. Vulgate, 119:4, "sagittae potentis acutae cum carbonibus iuniperorum".
205. Pliny, HN
206. Job. 30. 3, 4. See Moldenke. The Vulgate has "et mandebant herbas et arborum cortices et radix iuniperorum erat cibus eorum".
207. Scarlet Tincture, in Gen. 38. 28. Exod. 25. 4, &c. Not properly a berry, but the dead body of the female of the worm Coccus ilicis, which infests oaks, especially Quercus coccifera, common in mountainous areas of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. When ready to lay eggs, she affixes herself to the tree, thus affording the eggs and young the shelter of her (dead) body. Scarlet = Hebrew shaniy occurs about 35 times in the Bible. Although, as Browne says, the worm "grew plentifully in the Land of Canaan", some commentators doubt whether the Hebrews knew how to extract the dye. Those commentators believe that the Hebrews bought the prepared dye from the Phoenicians.
209. Oaks, in Gen. 35. 4, 8. Josh. 24. 26. Isa. 1. 29. Ezek. 27. 6. Hosea 4. 13, &c. “Oak”, which occurs 22 times in the KJV, translates several words or variations of words in the Hebrew, of which the basic three are אלה ela (probably = "terebinth") (also translated as "teil" in Isa. 6:13 and as "elm" in Ho. 4:13, where it occurs with other words also translated "oak"); אללון allown = "oak"; and, once, אללה allah = oak or terebinth. The word(s) probably mean(s) simply "noble" or "big" tree, although opinion varies. El or ayil, which occurs in Isa. 1:29, is normally translated "rams" (for sacrifice) and is thus rendered in the Vulgate. The Vulgate translates all the others as "quercus" except in Genesis 35:4 and 1 Kings 13:14, which have "terebinth" (Hebrew ela); in Isaiah 6:13 the Vulgate has "terebinth" for the KJV's "teil" and in Hos. 4:13 "terebinth" for "elm". There are many species of oak in the Levant, and certainly more specimens of oak trees than of the terebinth, although that tree becomes more common as the territory becomes more arid.
210. Quercus ilex, the holm oak; although the evergreen Quercus pseudococcifera or Quercus coccifera var. pseudococcifera is more likely what he saw, as it is said to be more common.
211. 2 Sam. 18. 9, 14. Quercus æsculentus or Italian oak, whose acorns are not only edible (as are all acorns, so far as I know) but "edulious or esculent".
212. 2 King. 18. 4. Browne's reasoning is especially valid in that oaks thrive in the cooler "high places".
214. Susannah 1:58: "Now therefore tell me, Under what tree didst thou take them companying together? Who answered, Under an holm tree"; Susannah 1:54: "Now then, if thou hast seen her, tell me, Under what tree sawest thou them companying together? Who answered, Under a mastick tree."
215. Ovid Metamorph. I.112.
216. Cedars of Libanus. The word "cedar" occurs in about 70 verses of the Bible (all Old Testament); e.g., Leviticus 14:51, "And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times"; Judges 9:15: "And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon"; 2 Chron. 9:27: "And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that are in the low plains in abundance"; Psalms 92:12: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon"; and so on. Most of the instances certainly refer to Cedrus libani, a tree rightly held in great esteem for its beauty, its fragrance, and the usefulness and durability of its wood.
217. That is, the tree might attain such a girth — not the fruit. The cones are 3-1/2 to 5 inches long.
218. A Journey to Jerusalem, 1672. Wilkin quotes Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (published posthumously in 1822 by “the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa”) on the sole stand of cedars that Burckhardt was able to find in Lebanon: “They stand on uneven ground, and form a small wood. Of the oldest and best-looking trees, I counted eleven or twelve; twenty-five very large ones; about fifty of middling size; and more than three hundred smaller and younger ones. The oldest trees are distinguished by having the foliage and small branches at the top only, and by four, five, or even seven trunks springing from one base; the branches and foliage of the others were lower, but I saw none whose leaves touched the ground, like those in Kew Gardens. The trunks of the old trees are covered with the names of travellers and other persons who have visited them: I saw a date of the seventeenth century. The trunks of the oldest trees seem to be quite dead: the wood is of a grey tint.”
219. Uncircumcised Fruit, in Levit. 19. 23.-25, which concludes "congregantes poma quae proferunt ego Dominus Deus vester".
220. This is more ingenious than likely. The Hebrew arel clearly means "uncircumcised", and why would God not say simply "circumcise it", rather than (more or less) "treat it as uncircumcised", which does not require, necessarily, circumcision. Especially as He is being, by God's standards, particularly clear in this part of the Bible. On the other hand, there is no prohibition against eating the uncircumcised; only against marrying them and such-like. So let us pass it over and be thankful we are not, most of us, Orthodox Jewish orchardists. Plutarch writes that Numa said "Thou shalt not make libation to the gods of wine from an unpruned vine," a prohibition Plutarch ranks among sayings of little apparent sense (Numa Pompilius).
221. Partition of Plants into Herb and Tree, in Gen. 1. 11. 1:11-12, in the KJV: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good”; in the Vulgate, “et ait germinet terra herbam virentem et facientem semen et lignum pomiferum faciens fructum iuxta genus suum cuius semen in semet ipso sit super terram et factum est ita. et protulit terra herbam virentem et adferentem semen iuxta genus suum lignumque faciens fructum et habens unumquodque sementem secundum speciem suam et vidit Deus quod esset bonum”.
222. The Bay Tree, in Psal. 37. 35. Which reads, in the KJV, "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree." The Vulgate has "res vidi impium robustum et fortissimum sicut indigenam virentem" (36:35), in far better accordance with the Hebrew.
223. In Ant.Jud. III.viii.6, “The high priest’s mitre was the same that we described before, and was wrought like that of all the other priests; above which there was another, with swathes of blue embroidered, and round it was a golden crown polished, of three rows, one above another; out of which arose a cup of gold, which resembled the herb which we call Saccharus; but those Greeks that are skillful in botany call it Hyoscyamus. Now, lest any one that has seen this herb, but has not been taught its name, and is unacquainted with its nature, or, having known its name, knows not the herb when he sees it, I shall give such as these are a description of it”, which he proceeds to do at great length. Scribonius Largus is mentioned in the tract on Cymbals, where, oddly, the description of cymbals is not given.
224. In Exodus 16:31, "And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey"; and in Numbers 11:7, "And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium".
225. Jer. 10. 5. "Upright as the palm tree" (of the heathen: it's not good).
226. This being the only occurrence of the bay tree in the KJV.
227. It must be remarked that Browne's "Vulgar" is not always the same as what we now call Jerome's Vulgate. In this instance, Browne is using the "Gallican Psalter", the version of the Psalms translated by Jerome from the Greek, or rather revised from the Old Latin based on the Greek (it's really more complicated than that, but there we shall leave it). Naturally, it is more in accord with the Septuagint and less with the Hebrew (and with the "true" Jeromean Vulgate).
228. Ainsworth.
229. Although the Anglo-Saxon of the Paris Psalter has cedar: "Ic geseah thone unrihtwisan swithe upahafenne swa swa sum cedertreow on Libanus munte."
230. The Figg Tree, in S. Mark 11. 13, &c.
231. Matt. 21. 19. “And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.” “Plainly” because Mark gives the beginning of the story in 13 but does not conclude it until 20.
232. Heinsius in Nonnum. Daniel Heinsius, 1580-1655.
233. D. Hammond. Henry Hammond, 1605-1660.
234. One scarcely knows where to begin, but let us start by pointing out that none of these alternative words actually occurs in the passages in question (nor anywhere else in the Bible). The word used is the standard word for the common fig, συκον. As defined these days, the distinctions are thus: συκον = common fig; ολυνϑος = Ficus caprificius, the fruit of the wild fig, and it is supposedly the same as ερινεος; συκαδες = συκιδες = cuttings of the common fig used for propagation. Finally, φυλυχ = wild fig, and perhaps derives from φυλος, cunning, deceitful, because its fruit may look ripe when it is not. (ισχαδες meaning "carrier" does not enter into the question; it is derived not from ισχας but from ισχηω, originally, "to hold back" or "to restrain".) Thus, so far as I can make out, there is only one distinction: wild vs. not wild. Now, in general, the fruit of the cultivated fig can be found on some trees in any period when they are in leaf; the main periods being June, when the Grossi, buds of the previous year held through the winter, ripen; and August-September, when the fruit of the new wood ripens. After a harsh winter, the June fruits may be blasted; in such a case, there will be no remnant fruits ripening in July, either. In addition, no particular tree can be guaranteed to have fruits outside the main periods of fruitfulness; statistically, if there are enough fig trees, there will be figs for most of the period between June and the autumn. All of this in addition to the considerations Browne will adduce in the next paragraphs.
235. Jer. 24. 2. Which concludes “and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.” It might be added, by a contrarian, that the “firstfruit” is not defined; it could be argued that the fruit of the early year, of precocious trees, is only that left over from the previous year; the fruit of the new growth, that of August, would be “newer’. But this is not a standard reading. (It is to be noted that Browne is moving away from the rational explanation of the story at which he at first seemed to be aiming — which explanation is in any case scarcely possible without positing simply that Jesus had a very hasty and particularly disagreeable temper — and into an explanation based on a symbolical, allegorical or analogical reading.)
236. As described in the Odyssey, VII.114-132.
237. S. Mark 14. 67. S. Luke 22. 55, 56.
238. S. John 18.18.
239. Or April; Leviticus 23:10.
240. One need hardly point out the unsatisfactory nature of this disquisition. However correct it may be botanically, it does not ever come near answering the questions posed by the passage(s). (1) A hungry Jesus spies out a fig tree; although it is out of season, he goes up to it and expects to find something to eat on it, but he is disappointed. (2) So he curses it so that it will never feed anyone else. Why not, we might ask, bring it to fruitfulness? In any case, it is left to see exactly what this curse means. (3) He then goes into Jerusalem and goes about the business of clearing out the temple, in an apparent rage. (4) He then exits Jerusalem, whereupon his disciples see that the poor fig tree has been blasted. (5) He then begins a disquisition the essence of which is (a) God is powerful, (b) God answers the prayers of (c) those who forgive! And those who do not are in big trouble. Now this last statement is certainly supported by the events that soon followed; but what are we to make of the combination of (b) and (c) in the context of the fig tree? For if Jesus prays without forgiving — the only way he could pray for the obliteration of a tree that has discommoded him — is he not disobeying his own injunction? As far as its signifying the "Synagogue and Rulers of the Jews", while this is a standard interpretation, it is hardly to be drawn from the text: among many other objections, the tree is not said to have been cultivated (although it was not beyond Jesus to steal fruit; after all, he had just stolen an ass and a colt); and Jesus himself makes no such conclusion — indeed, he does not justify the act at all, but merely says "see what you can do if you have faith"; what one might call the "look Ma, no hands!" defense.
One other thing should be kept in mind in considering these passages: this is not a story or a parable; it is an event in the life of Jesus, told by two eye-witnesses. However grossly unfair it might be to pay the same wages for eight hours as for one hour of work, that is simply an illustration of a point. This story, however illustrative of a point, is said to be real. Its problems therefore cannot be brushed away by allegorical interpretation, however neat that interpretation is (and it isn't, very). Consider also the much gentler parable in Luke 13:6-9, where the fig tree is spared.
241. Micah 7. 1. “Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.”
242. The tree is said not to have fruit at that moment; it is not said to be barren. Indeed, the opposite is strongly implied, because the curse is that No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever; and in order to accomplish this, the tree was destroyed.
243. Horace Sermones I.viii.1, which continues "cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum, maluit esse deum". There is a mysterious M in the margin opposite this quote.
244. The fig tree wasn’t totally useless, aside from its fruit: You could sit under it; see John 1:48. You could even dwell under it; 1 Kings 4:25.
245. The Palm Tree, in Cant. 7. 8. Which normally reads go up to the palm tree" in the KJV, although most other English translations have "climb" or "go up into" and the Vulgate has "ascendam". The Hebrew עלה 'alah has as primary meaning "go up" in the sense of "climb" or "ascend". It would be most interesting to hear Browne explain the remainder of the verse, and what it has to do with the beginning; but that must, alas, await a day when we will be in the presence of better authorities on the subject.
246. Plin. 13, cap. 4. (A modified quote of) Pliny HN xiii.29; Englished, XIII, Chap. IV.
247. A common (and, if you ask me, highly obnoxious) coin type under Vespasian and Titus; see, for instance, this site. Other "Judæa capta" coins were issued by Domitian and Hadrian.
248. Pliny HN xiii.26 "Iudaea vero incluta est vel magis palmis, quarum natura nunc dicetur." Englished, XIII, Chap. IV
249. Lilies, in Cant. 2. 1, 2, 16. 1-2: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” 16: “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.” [In the Vulgate, “ego flos campi et lilium convallium. sicut lilium inter spinas sic amica mea inter filias”; “dilectus meus mihi et ego illi qui pascitur inter lilia”.] See also the discussions above concerning the lily and the lily of the valley.
250. Cant. 4. 1. “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.” Smith’s Bible Dictionary suggests this is a reference to the “amativeness” of the dove, clearly visible (in the spring at least) even among the common doves of the United States (and of Norwich). The goat in question is presumably the Angora goat, although even so it is not a comparison I would venture upon with any degree of confidence. Syrian Doves are mentioned in another context in Pseudodoxia Epidemica III.iii. Easton’s Bible Dictionary, quoting Psalm 68, says that there is a species of dove “in Damascus” with gold feathers and silver wings. This seems to be stretching a text to the breaking point, and perhaps beyond.
251. Levit. 3. 9. Various breeds of fat-tailed sheep are common throughout the Middle East and Africa, and have been for thousands of years. Even now, the most common breed of sheep in Israel, Syria, Iran and the area is the Awassi and its derivatives, an African or Africanized fat-tailed sheep. The tails of the original Palestine fat-tailed sheep are very broad, at about fifteen inches, and can weigh up to forty or fifty pounds, mostly of fat. Apparently shepherds were accustomed to provide a little wooden wagon on which the tails of sheep could rest — at least, rabbinical authorities place this among the activities prohibited on the Sabbath. Some authorities consider that it is the tail alone that is sacrificed. Breeds of fat-tailed sheep are raised all over the world now. Indeed, Browne might have seen them himself, as apparently they formed a major breed on the isle of Canvey, in whose arms one (couchant, if that is the word for a sheep, and proper) figures.
252. Aristot. Hist. Animal. lib. 8 Part 28.
253. Cant. 4. 2. The currently dominant breed of fat-tailed sheep bears about 1.2 lambs per lambing, although the Israelis have bred a sheep that bears 2.1. Solomon is no doubt casting about for images of perfection, not describing reality. (After all, whose teeth are really like a flock of sheep? And is it desirable?)
254. Psal. 144. 13. Once again, not so much a description of reality as a description of an ideal world, in a prayer.
256. Trees and Herbs not expresly nam’d in Scripture. Levit. 23. 40. The word translated “goodly” here is elsewhere rendered “excellent”, “glorious”, etc.; that translated “thick” is always thus translated, and means thick with foliage, leafy. There seems to have been a split in the Jewish tradition, before Jesus’ day, over the exact procedure of the festival. The (historically) victorious view is that usually attributed to the Pharisees, who said that the branches plucked were to be carried into the Temple (as lulob and etrog, as on the coins above) rather than the more specious explanation that they should be the actual building materials for the sukkoth or tabernacles or booths. This victory of one viewpoint leads in the rabbinical sources to what is probably an over-precise description of the botanical requirements.
257. Curtius de Hortis. Benoît de Court, in his Horti of 1560. Curtius's most famous work is a long series of erudite Latin notes, far outweighing the text, provided for Les arrêts d'amour, a jeu d'esprit of Martial de Paris.
258. Exod. 12:8, Numbers 9:11. מרר, mrowr, (like the holiday of the cats) sometimes translated “bitterness”, otherwise “bitter herbs”, as is the Jewish custom. The “classical” list is endive, chicory, wild lettuce, watercress, sorrel, and dandelion (although dandelion at that season of the year would not be very “bitter” in our climate), to which some add mint (!).
259. Browne seems to regard the procedure as something like haggis on Robert Burns' Night: if you are sufficiently drunk, you may dash down a small part with a bit more Scotch. Recipes for the charoseth are to be found variously on line; try here for a wide selection organized by origin. Each person must take the amount of an olive of bitter herbs, and not less, although presumably more is permitted.
260. Reeds in Scripture. In Isaiah 19:7, “The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.” Reeds occur about 35 times in the Bible, New Testament included.
261. Ezek. 40. 5. Arundo donax, the giant reed common throughout the Holy Land and Egypt. It grows from 8 to 20 feet tall in very thick clumps, almost like jungles. It is probable that this is also the reed of the passages in Matthew and Mark, but see note 27 above on hyssop/reed.
262. S. Matt. 27. 30, 48. And likewise Mark 15:19 and 15:36. Probably, again, Arundo donax, although possibly cattail, one of the Typha species, which better accords with the Greek καλαμος. See also note 27 above.
263. Josh. 16, 17. E.g., 16:8, “de Taffua pertransitque contra mare in valle Harundineti suntque egressus eius in mare Salsissimum haec est possessio tribus filiorum Ephraim per familias suas”, where KJV gives “the river Kanah”; Kanah = קנה = reed. “Vallatory”, from L. vallum, wall: used for measuring walls; “Sagittary”, for arrows; “Scriptory”, for writing. The first word seems never to have been used outside this passage; the second never in this particular sense except here; the third is rare and may never have been used elsewhere to mean the actual instrument of writing.
264. Probably Phragmites communis or its varieties.
265. Josh. 3. 15. The modern river is between 90 and 100 feet wide, but the valley it has carved is considerably wider. In addition, its banks are frequently marshy or swampy. It is not a river one would wish to cross without a bridge, bearing all of one's household possessions and all of the sacred objects of one’s people, and most especially the Ark, whose mode of travel was strictly regulated.
266. Ecclus. 24. 26.
267. Zizania, in S. Matt. 13. 24, 25, &c. In all probability Lolium temulentum, the darnel, a common weed of the area, as Wyclif and earlier translators rendered it — or sometimes as cockle, leading to further confusion. Darnel is one of only three widely-spread poisonous grasses, although it is widely held that the poisonous effects are due to a fungus that grows in the grains (compare ergot in rye) rather than to the grain itself. It is a perfect mimic of wheat when young. Although distinguishable from wheat at harvest time, it is difficult and labor-intensive to cull it from the wheat crop. Its seeds, smaller than wheat, can be more or less effectively removed at threshing time; but in poor districts like Palestine or in poor years it may be left with the wheat. In many country districts (Smith cites Palestine, Mrs. Grieve Cheshire) darnel is felt to be a degenerated wheat rather than a separate plant. It is also purposely planted by the malicious in some areas to spoil crops. The effects of its poisons include cramps, nausea, hypothermia, and the appearance of drunkenness; it was held by the ancients to cause blindness. (The modern French ivraie, = Browne's yuroye, refers to the intoxicating aspect of the plant). The Greek ζιζάνιον (Vulgate zizania), a weed that grows in wheat, darnel. The word was not used by classical authors, whose darnel is αἶρα, as Browne points out; zizania is probably of oriental origin, as Arabic zawan and its variants and the Sumerian zizån. The tares, or fitches or vetches (remember them?), Vicia spp., especially sativa, are no longer very common or very difficult weeds, if ever they were, although some of them can be nuisances, notably hirsuta, strangle-tare.
268. ἐξαιροῦσθαι. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. 1. 8. [This does not occur in Hist. Plant. lib. 8; the word in the form Browne gives does not occur in Theophrastus in the accepted text. I’ve changed it to the form given in C.P. II.16, but am not sure what Browne had in mind.]
269. In HN xviii.156, where its consumption in bread is said to render one tipsy.
270. De Horti Cultura
271. Cockle, in Job. 31. 40. באשה bashaw, “noxious weed”. Vulgate: “pro frumento oriatur mihi tribulus et pro hordeo spina finita sunt verba Iob”. Wilkin notes “Celsius, and after him Michaelis, supposes this to have been the aconite”. Cockle is usually Agrostemma (or Lychnis) githago; see also notes 94 and 95.
This page is by James Eason.
