The trees are very common in Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt; grow large and to a great height; and though the grain is coarse, are much used in building. To change sycamores into cedars, Isai. ix. 10, means to render the buildings of cities and the state of the nation much more magnificent than before. Dr. Shaw remarks that, 66 as the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could therefore stand in no competition at all with the cedar for beauty and ornament.' We meet with the same opposition of cedars to sycamores 1 Kings, x. 27, where Solomon is said to have made silver as the stones, and cedars as the sycamores of the vale, for abundance. "By this mashal, or figurative and sententious speech, says Bp. Lowth, they boast (in this place of Isaiah) that they shall easily be able to repair their present losses, suffered perhaps by the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-Pileser, and to bring their affairs to a more flourishing condition than ever."

The wood of this tree is very durable. "The mummy chests, says Dr. Shaw, Trav. p. 376 and 436, and whatever figures and instruments of wood are found in the catacombs, are all of them of sycamore, which, though spongy and porous to appearance, has notwithstanding continued entire and uncorrupted for at least three thousand years."

From its value in furnishing wood for various uses, from the grateful shade which its wide spreading branches afforded, and on account of the fruit which Mallet says the Egyptians hold in the highest estimation, we perceive the loss which the ancient inhabitants of Egypt must have felt when" their vines were destroyed with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost." Psal. lxviii. 47.

Mr. Norden, in his Travels into Egypt and Nubia, v. i. p. 79, has given a particular account of the tree and its fruit. "The sycamore," says he, "is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees; it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs, in form of grapestalks, at the end of which grow the fruit close to one another, almost like clusters of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons; for I have seen some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgustful sweetness. Its colour is a yellow inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh colour. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt; the peo ple, for the greater part, live upon its fruit, and think themselves well regated when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of water."-This account, in several things, agrees with what Pliny, N. H. l. xiii. c. 7, and Solinus,

Polyhistor. c. 45, relate of this tree and its fruit. Very likely there might be many of these trees in Judea. David appointed a particular officer, whose sole duty it was to watch over the plantations of sycamore and olive-trees. 1 Chron. xxviii, 28. And being joined with the olive, the high estimation in which it was held is intimated; for "the olive is considered as one of the most precious gifts which the God of nature has bestowed on the oriental nations." There seem to have been great numbers of them in Solomon's time. 1 Kings, x. 27; and in the Talmud they are mentioned as growing in the plains of Jericho.

One curious particular in the cultivation of the fruit must not be passed over. Pliny, N. H. I. xiii. c. 7; Dioscorides, 1. 1. c. 143; and Theophrastus, Hist. 1. iv. c. 2, observe that the fruit must be cut or scratched, either with the nail or with iron, or it will not ripen; but four days after this process it will become ripe. To the same purpose Jerom, on Amos, vii. 14; says that without this management the figs are excessively bitter. “Symori agrestes afferunt ficus, quæ, si non vellicentur, amarissimas cariculas faciunt." These testimonies, together with the LXX and Vulgate version, are adduced to settle the meaning of the word in Amos, vii. 14, which must signify scraping, or making incisions in the sycamore fruit; an employment of Amos before he was called to the prophetic office.

Hasselquist, Trav. p. 261, describing the "Ficus Sycamorus," or scripture sycamore, says: "It buds the latter end of March, and the fruit ripens in the beginning of June. At the time when the fruit has arrived to the size of an inch diameter, the inhabitants pare off a part at the centre point. They say that without this paring it would not come to maturity." The figs thus prematurely ripened are called "djumeiz bædri,” that is præcosious sycamore figs 10.

In Luke, xix. 4, the ovnoμway is rendered in the Arabic version "giumus;" by which name the tree is described by Leo, 1. ix. of his description of Africa, as having a fruit in taste like a fig, but which grows, not on the branches, but on the stem of the tree. So Celsius, l. iii. c. 18. This account perfectly suits that of the Egyptian fig in botanical authors 11.

As the sycamore is a large spreading tree, sometimes shooting up to a considerable height, we see the reason why Zaccheus

10 For other authorities and particulars see Bochart, Hieroz. v. i. p. 277; Calmet's Dictionary, in "Sycamore" and "Fig;" Scheuchzer, Phys. Sacr. on 1 Kings, x. 27, and Tab. cccclxiv. Shaw's Trav. p. 435. Harmer's Obs. v. ii. p. 309. The tree is represented, with its fruit, plate xxxviii. of Norden. Pococke's Trav. v. i. p. 205. A very copious and learned account of this tree has been given by Warnekros," Historia naturalis sycamori ex veterum botanicorum monumentis et itineriis conscripta;" in Eichornii Repertorium, Theil. xi. 224;

xii. 81.

11 That which in this country we call "sycamore," and which the aborigines called "sugamug," is quite a different tree.

climbed up into a sycamore tree to get a sight of our Saviour. This incident also furnishes a proof that the sycamore was still common in Palestine; for this tree stood to protect the traveller by the side of the highway.

TARE.

ZIZANON.

Occ. Matth. xiii. 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40.

It is not easy to determine what plant or weed is here intended, as the word zizania is neither mentioned in any other part of scripture, nor in any ancient Greek writer. Some Greek and Latin fathers have made use of it, as have also Suidas and Phavorinus: but it is probable that they have all derived it from this text. As this gospel was first written in Syriac it is probably a word belonging to that language. Buxtorf in his Rabbinical Lexicon gives several interpretations, but at last concludes with submitting it to the decision of others. In a treatise in the Mishna, called "Kilayim," which treats expressly of different kinds of seeds, a bastard or degenerate wheat is mentioned by the name of ZONIM, which the very sound, in pronouncing, proves to be the same as the zizanon; and which may lead to the true derivation of the word, that is, from the Chaldee ji, a kind or species of grain, namely; whence the corrupt Hebrew or Syriac , which in the ancient Syriac version answers to the Greek Zilavia, Matth. xiii. 25, et seq. In Psal. cxliv. 13, the words MIZZAN AL ZAN, are translated "all manner of store;" but they properly signify from species to species. Might not the Chaldee word ZUNIN, and the Greek word Ziavov come from the Psalmist's ZANZAN, which might have signified a mixture of grain of any kind, and be here used to point out the mixing bastard or degenerate wheat among the good seedwheat ? Mintert says, that " it is a kind of plant, not unlike corr or wheat, having at first the same sort of stalk, and the same viridity, but bringing forth no fruit, at least none good:" and he adds from John Melchior, tom. i. p. m. 272, Zilavov does not signify every weed in general which grows among corn, but a particular seed, known in Canaan, which was not unlike wheat, but, being put into the ground, degenerated, and assumed another nature and form.

זן

Parkhurst, and Dr. Campbell, render it " the darnel;” “lolium temulentum." Lin. The same plant is called "zizanion" by the Spaniards; as it appears to be "zuvan" by the Turks and Arabs. "It is well known to the people at Aleppo (says M. Forskal). It grows among corn. If the seeds remain mixed with the meal, they occasion dizziness to those who eat of the bread. The reapers do not separate the plant; but after the threshing, they reject the seeds by means of a van or sieve." Other travellers mention, that in some parts of Syria, the plant, is drawn up by the hand in the time of harvest, along with the wheat, and is then gathered out, and bound up in separate bun

dles. In the parable of the tares, our Lord states the very same circumstances. They grew among the grain; they were not separated by the tillers, but suffered to grow up together till the harvest; they were then gathered from among the wheat with the hand, and bound up in bundles 1o.

TEIL-TREE. This word is found in our translation of Isai. vi. 13, where it answers to the Hebrew N ALAH, which in all other places is rendered "oak.”

The Teil is the linden-tree. It is very common in Syria and Palestine. Its leaf resembles that of the laurel, and its flower that of the olive.

THISTLE. A well known troublesome plant.

There are several kinds of thistles in the East; and probably more than one kind is referred to in the Scripture. The Talmud 13 mentions abundance of thistles (carduus) as growing in a valley not far from Bethlehem.

I. The word 7777 DARDAR, which occurs in Gen. iii. 18; and Hosea, x. 8, Bate14, tracing from a Hebrew root which signifies round, thinks to be "so named from its round form, and being encircled on all sides with prickles; or from its seeds being encircled in a downy sphere, on which it easily rolls." The LXX render it Toλos, and St. Paul uses the same word, Hebr. vi. 8, where in our version it is rendered "briers."

The tribules, briers, which answers to the Hebrew word DARDAR, is the name of certain prickly plants. Dioscorides, 1. iv. c. 15, distinguishes two kinds; one terrestrial, whose leaves are like those of the purslain, but smaller, which extends its lesser branches on the earth, and which has, along its leaves, stiff and hard thorns; the other kind is the aquatic, the " tribuloides;" which, says Tournefort, is common enough in the waters. Dr. Shaw, Specim. Phytograph. No. 97, pronounces the DARDAR of the Hebrews, and the tribulus of the ancients to be the Fagonia Arabica; longissimis aculeis armata.

II. The word rendered "thistle," in the beautiful parable, 2 Kings, xiv. 9; and in 2 Chron. xxv. 18, is П CHOACH, which I have mentioned under the article THORN.

III. The thistle, Job, xxxi. 40, is in the original, WN BASEH, upon the authority of Hasselquist, modern critics concur in rendering the "night-shade;" a plant very common in Egypt, Palestine, and the East: "And it must be observed (says Mr. Good), that the Arabic bys, which is one of the terms for night-shade, in some degree supports this opinion. If this be the plant, it is probably that species of solanum, which is essentially denominated pubescens (hoary night-shade); though several

12 See other illustrations in Scheuchzer, Phys. Sacr. on Matth. xiii. Michaelis, Quest. xv. and Campbell's Note.

13 Tract. Schevi, c. ix. Beth-Netopha. Ezra, ii. 22. 14 Crit. Hebr. See also Parkhurst, Hebr. Lex.

other species of this genus are also indigenous in the East. In other parts of the Bible, however, appears to import a weed not only noxious, but of a fetid smell; which character hardly applies to any species of night-shade; and in truth, the verb itself, w, in its primary signification bears the same meaning, viz. to stink 15. The Septuagint translate it Baros, the blackberry bush; Castalio, "ebulus," the dwarf elder; Symmachus, TEλEGOogyTa, plants of imperfect fruit; the Chaldee,, noxious herbs generally. It is rendered "wild grapes" in Isai. v. 2, 4. See GRAPES, wild, Sec. ii.

IV. The author of the Book of Wisdom, ch. v. 14, by a most expressive comparison, has illustrated the immense difference between the fate of bad men and of the righteous, by declaring that the hope of the ungodly is "like thistle down, blown away by the wind."

"Do

V. The word for thistle, in Matth. vii. 16, is TPIBOAOE; and in Heb. vi. 8, the same word is translated "brier." men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?" Galen, de curat. has a passage very similar: Ο γεωργός ουκ αν ποτε δυνη σαιτο ποιησαι τον βατον εκφέρειν βοτρυν, the husbandman would never be able to make the thorn produce grapes: and Campanella has borrowed the passage for illustrating the maxim, "Ens nullum aliis dare posse, quod ipsum in se non habet." "Nunquam lucem vidimus gignere tenebras, nec calorem frigus, nec spinam lenire, nec grave levare: Nec colligunt de tribulis ficus, ait Messias 16"

THORN. A general name for several kinds of prickly plants. So little was known of the natural history of the East, when our version of the Bible was made, that it was impossible for the translators to ascertain the varieties designated by appropriate words in the original; and they seem to have been content with rendering them, by the familiar names of plants and shrubs armed with prickles or spines. Referring to the articles BRAMBLE, BRIER, NETTLE, and THISTLE, I shall here endeavour to arrange in some order the information I have been able to collect on this intricate subject.

Denon thus remarks in his lately published travels; " One of the inconveniences of the vegetable thickets of Egypt is, that it is difficult to remain in them, seeing that nine-tenths of the trees and plants are armed with inexorable thorns, which suffer only an unquiet enjoyment of the shadow which is so constantly desirable, from the precaution necessary to guard against them." It is no wonder, therefore, that among so many kinds of thorns, we are embarrassed in identifying those mentioned in Scripture. “Quid exempta juvat spinis de pluribus una?"

15 Hence perhaps our English word base, vile, offensive. 16 De sensu rerum, l. i. c. 1, init.

DD