HOLCUS DURRA, of which there are several kinds. This bread corn is subject to a distemper, called by the Arabs ohab; when the seeds grow the length of your nail, conical, and filled with a dark brown pulp; which at last bursts through the rind, and makes its way out. Comp. Consp. Faun. Or. p. xx. n. 5. EXPOSITORY INDEX, Amos iv. 19.

OBS. This is the commonest bread corn of the Arabs, from which they make bread that is very insipid to an European palate. They procure three crops every year: 1st, uœsmi; 2d, chatif; 3d, akba. Each requires two months and a half to come to maturity. The first crop is regularly sown; the two last spring from the seeds which were shed. Birds of various kinds are very greedy of the holcus when ripe, so that the husbandman cannot by watching, and continual brawling, keep them away. See more concerning this matter in the editor's description of Arabia, p.154, 158. F.

I would call the attention of the reader to two particulars here: 1st, the self-sowing of this corn, as it seems to countenance the idea that the "handful of corn on the top of the mountains," Psalm lxxii. 16. may mean self-sown corn, which indicates a revival, or renascence; and, as we find this corn is called bar, it most probably answers to the burr, or "wild corn," of the Arabs. The 2d particular is the fondness of the birds for this grain, and the trouble taken by the husbandman to drive them away.

OAT, avena Pensylvan. It grows in the desert places about Cairo. Arab. Sadjaret eddjæmmel.

-fatua. Spontaneous. Summajr, or chafur. It is rough all over, flowers and all; a span long. It grows abundantly in the fields.

-fatua. Spontaneous. It has the same name as the former. The beards are within the calyx, at the base of the first flower: the husks of the corolla quite smooth.

WHEAT, triticum, spelt, hairy. It is ripe at Alexandria about the end of April. Zamh hunta. It is frequently sown in the same field with the trefoil of Alexandria.

In each small ear, and on both sides, is a flower hermaphrodite, fertile, bearded; in the middle. one or two proving abortive, male or neuter.

One variety with hairy husks, has oval oblong ears, an inch and a half thick. Arab. Zamh næ æjghe.

Another, with husks somewhat hairy, has ears linear, of the thickness of two inches, and of the colour of rusty iron, with beards somewhat ciliated, and frequently black within at the base. Arab. Quamh m'ghajir.

WHEAT, triticum, is cultivated on mountains. Arab. Burr.

SPELT, triticum, smooth. It has very smooth husks; ears linear, and white, of the thickness of two inches and more. Arab. Quamh stajri. Whether it is a variety of the former, or a new species, I cannot determine.

CHICKPEASE, cicer arietinum. Garden plant.
The pease or fruit are called homos; the plant
while it has pods, melan.
COCKLE. Vide ZIZANIA.

N.B. The "cockle" of Job xxxi. 40. in the original implies a "stinking weed," which the cockle is not, that I can find. But, from the other plants of a like nature, it is clear that there is no want of "stinking weeds;" yet most probably some specific plant is intended. Michaelis says the aconite. But vide EXPOSITORY INDEX, Deut. xxxii. 32. CROCUS, in our translation rendered saffron. Vide Cant. iv. 14. EXPOSITORY INDEX. CUMMIM. Arab. Kamun, brought from Upper Egypt. F.

The Arabic name appears to identify this plant. DARNELL. Vide CoCKLE and ZIZANIA. HEMLOCK. In Amos vi. 12. we read of "righteousness turned into hemlock;" the very same word which, in chap. v. 7. is rendered "turn judgment to wormwood." This impropriety is obvious; the word is usually rendered wormwood. xxxii. 32. EXPOSITORY INdex. HENBANE. Hyoscyamus datora.

Vide Deut.

It is very plentiful in the deserts of Cairo, that are sandy, and exposed to the sun. Arab. datora ; by others sekaran. If the powder of this plant is by a malicious hand given to any one to drink, it renders him insane, and he does not recover the use of his reason till several days after. F.

Is there any allusion to a plant of such properties in Scripture?

HYSSOP is mentioned as one of the smallest of herbs, 1 Kings, iv. 33. It is an herb of a bitter taste, and grows on the mountains near Jerusalem. The hyssop of John xix. 29. is probably what is called a reed, or cane, Mark xv. 36; Matth. xxvii. 48. or else this hyssop was like a sponge imbued with the drink; and perhaps it was a handful gathered of the nearest herbs to the spot, which might be mostly hyssop.

HYSSOP. The mosses and lichens are rare in the Levant. The pyramids have no lichens crustacei: the walls of Jerusalem are covered with them. There grows out of the city, near the fountain of Solomon, q. Siloam? a very minute moss is not this the hyssop? It is at least as diminutive as the cedar is tall and majestic," Hasselquist's Letter, Sept. 22, 1751.

INDIGO plant. INDIGOFERA, HOWER.

It grows spontaneously in the fields at Surdud. Arab. hower.

OBS. This species, which is the dye of the Arabs, is every where cultivated on account of its blue colour, of which the inhabitants of both sexes are remarkably fond.

The plant being cut down, is spread abroad and dried. It is then put into large casks up to the middle; spring water is poured in to the brim.

Thus it undergoes a fermentation during two hours. Then it is well mixed by a cane, that has four small sticks fastened across at the bottom. The floating leaves are taken out. The water, which is green and unserviceable, is let off by a hole half a span above the bottom of the cask. The sediment is the indigo. A round hole, not deep, about two yards in diameter, is made in the ground; it is covered over with the leaves that were at first rejected, made small, and on this layer the indigo is spread to dry. This dust, however, always adulterates the bottom of the mass. F.

I take for granted, that from this plant the Hebrews also procured their blue dye, which was greatly valued among them. Is the plant itself any where intended in Scripture?

JUSSIEA, EATABLE. Its stalks are prostrate; it has deeply petiolated leaves, ovated, folded, and serrated at the edge; flowers with four petals and eight stamina.

The clusters of flowers are axillary. The seeds are ripe at the end of December.

Lohaja. Arab. uæki. It is eatable; and is dressed after the manner of pot herbs, or mixed with the bread of Durra.

F.

We find several seeds employed in the same manner in Scripture: is this among them? Vide SESAMUM.

LEEKS. Vide ONIONS, &c. LENTILS. Vide EXPOSITORY INDEX, 2 Sam. xvii.

LILY. PANCRATIUM ILLYRICUM. Succory.

The stamina are of the length of the nectaria.
The bulbs are white and large.

Alexandria. It is a garden plant. Arab. Su

sann.

OBS. Is this the shushan, or lily of the Jews? The very learned Celsus supposes that plant to be the white lily. It has a great resemblance to this pancratium, which in whiteness surpasses lilies, and the most perfect white produceable by the art of dyeing. White dresses were formerly reserved for the masters of the sacrifices: May we hence conclude, that this, as well as the purple, was an appendage to royalty? F. The WHITE LILY is called zambak.

The pretensions of this plant to be the lily of Scripture, are much diminished by its being a garden plant: if it grew wild, it would, from the character given of it, seem very likely. A figure of this plant might enable us to trace the form of the lily work, 1 Kings, vii. 19. which clearly was sexpartite.

MANDRAKES. Vide CUCUMBER, Schemmam. MELONS. Vide CUCUMBER.

MILLET. This word occurs Ezek. iv. 9; and some have suspected that it also occurs Isai. xxviii.

28. It is called duchan, or dochan, in Ezekiel, and probably is the holcus durra. Vide CORN. Its Latin name millet is supposed to derive from mille, q. a thousand grains, so prolific is it in its nature. Durra, says Niebuhr, is a kind of millet, made into bread with camel's milk, oil, butter, &c. and is almost the only, food eaten by the common people of Arabia Felix. "I found it so disagreeable, that I would willingly have preferred plain barley bread." This illustrates the appointment of it to the prophet Ezekiel as a part of his hard fare. MINT.

MUGWORT, ARTEMISIA. Garden plant. Arab. sjæbe, implies hoary hairs. This name is given to other plants that have hairy ash coloured leaves, and to the lichen. It has some resemblance to the Hebrew naw, which signifies hoary, gray headed. abrotan? SOUTHERNWOOD. Garden plant. Simsak, or msæka. NETTLE, URTICA, palm.

DESCR. The pedicles are axillary, formed like ears of corn, and spread out. The males are headed; the females have a spine the thickness of an inch; spread out, stiff; rough, branching, and pinnated; bearing flowers only underneath. It has four stamina. The seed is close, delicate, and roundish.

It grows on Yemen in the mountains. Arab. Schadjaret el mehabbe; that is, plant of love, ironically so called. F.

Observe, 1st, The naming of this plant; ironically. 2dly, It is a mountain plant. We have supposed, nevertheless, it was appointed to the flats of Babylon, Isai. xxxiv. 11.

NIGHTSHADE, SOLANUM, hoary. It has a prickly stalk, and yellow coriaceous berry. It grows on a moist clayey plain, pretty near mountains, and in the lower region of mountains, Æjin al begar, that is "cow's eye." Mor.

NIGHTSHADE, SOLANUM, black. C. ii. 49. The juice of the fresh leaves is applied to a wound after cauterizing: and to a disease, called by the Arabs, bula.

[Bulæ, a disease to which the Arabs are subject, unknown to the Europeans. It is a corroding wound without pain, which being healed, there remains a scar, as after the small pox. The leaves of the black solanum, being bruised, and applied for three days, prove a certain cure.

It grows spontaneously, and is called enabeddib, "wolf's grapes."]

SOLANUM, Egyptian. I have seen two varieties, so conspicuous, that they might be taken for two different species.

It has red fruit, and smooth leaves, rather angulated.

SOLANUM, HOARY.

At Uafad I found the fruit yellow and coriaceous, of the thickness of an inch.

At Djobla, Arab. ennæma, or æjn el bagar: at Uahfad, ersan.

The solanum incanum is called æin el bagar, "cow's eye:" also ærsen.

The fresh leaves are applied to wounds. In the toothach the smoke of the leaves is taken by means of a tobacco pipe.

The leaves of this plant and physal somnifera boiled in water, are used to wash suffering under strong hypochondriac disease, which persons who are by the ignorant is called demoniacism. EXPOSITORY INDEX, Deut. xxxii. 32. Vide

REEDS.

REED, or CANE, ARUNDO DONAX. leaves deeply lanceolated; smooth in the base; It has moss within the calyx.

DESCR. The stem often branches out 8, or sometimes 10 yards in height. The panicle terminal, opening according to the direction of the wind, yellow.

The leaves frequently double, green, having underneath the middle nerve a whitish base; flat, white in the base; not ciliated at the edge, but at the upper part of the base; the longest in the middle, which encompasses half the stem: the beard near the cod is membranaceous ciliated. The last leaves of the base are hairy at the point. There are 3 or 4 calyces to a flower; the panicle spread abroad; each other shell of the corolla is bearded.

It is very common by the rivers of Yemen. Arab. kasab. At Rosetta it grows in ditches. It is called by the Egyptians bus, the common name for a cane when they speak of this as a species, they call it, bus haggni.

ARUNDO, the largest; the leaves ciliated at the

edge, white at the base, hairy ciliated, flat, all over green.

At

The younger leaves have all a ciliated rough edge; which roughness disappears in time. the base, however, all the leaves have a hairy ciliated edge.

It grows abundantly. It is different from the donax haggni.

OBS. The donax and sugar ganesj not only cover the banks of the Nile, but entirely obstruct it, like the alder-tree in the north, and the mangle in the Indies. The Egyptians employ these canes very advantageously for quickset hedges, which are not only of the most delightful green colour, but they grow up to the remarkable height of 6 or 8 yards. A ditch encompasses this fence of canes. It is usual likewise to fasten the outer canes together, by two rows of bands made of the leaves of the palm-tree. In the peninsula of Ras-ettin I saw another contrivance for defending the gardens, no less laborious than foolish; for each tree is surrounded by a hedge made lattice-wise, of the leaves of a live palm-tree, twisted over each other. This enclosure only lasts one year. That appears to me no less absurd, than to have a field and a garden in the same field.

water stream out.

Ghobeibe, is a marsh about the space of 8 hours distance from the city of Suez, and lying to the south of it. Here likewise fountains of hot running Here grows an immense wood of the canes, phragmit, and calamagrostes 12 yards high, which the Nile does not produce. The stems are conveyed all over Egypt and Arabia. These canes, with earth thrown over them, contribute to construct the flat terraces on the roofs of their houses.

Tradition will have it, that Moses passed through the sea, which was divided, to allow him a passage from his station at Ghobeibe. However that may be, it appears, at least, probable, that this extensive region of canes gave name to the Red Sea, which in those times not only flowed up to it, but by which it was entirely inundated. Jam suph is a sea that produces canes: and as the Arabs denote two sorts of canes by the generical name bus, the sirname being added afterward, Moses, the sacred historian, following the same ancient denomination, did not attend to the specifical niceties of botanology. This same leader of the people underwent the first dangers of his life in a cradle made of the reeds, donax, or haggni, Exod. ii. 2. Reeds do not grow on the shores of the Red Sea, except there are fountains and marshy places, as at Ghobeibe; which are seldom to be met with. F. This information induces us to conclude, that in these reeds, which cover the banks of the Nile, we have what our translation renders the flags, suph,

in which Moses was concealed in his trunk, or ark of bulrushes, goma. The remarkable height to which they grow, and their plenty, lead to the persuasion that in some thick tuft of them, the future prophet of Israel was concealed, Exod. ii. 3. Observe, also, the interrogation of Job, viii. 11. "can the rush, goma, rather the tall, strong, cane, or reed, grow up, to its full height, without water?" surely not; if deprived of that nutriment it must wither, verse 12. The latter clause might perhaps be well rendered "can the achu, the trefoil, grow without waterings?" plural, [vide TREFOIL,] meaning those labours bestowed by man in its cultivation; wherein it differs from the goma, which enjoys the permanent marsh, or river. N.B. Both these plants are entirely Egyptian. This goma, being a tall reed, is with great propriety associated with the kanah, cane, Isai. xxxv. 7. "a court of canes and reeds.”

"THE SWEET SMELLING REED, schananthus officinalis, is common in the deserts of the two Arabias. It is gathered near Iambo, a port town of Arabia Petrea, from whence it is brought into Egypt. The Venetians purchase it and use it in the composition of their theriaca. This plant was very probably among the number of those which the queen of Sheba presented to Solomon; and what persuades me to this opinion is, that it is still very much esteemed by the Arabs, on account of its fragrance. They call it "helsi meccavi, and idhir mecchi," Hasselquist.

This, in all probability, is the sweet cane of Jer. vi. 20. where it is called prime, or excellent, and is associated with incense from Sheba; the same in Exod. xxx. 23. where our translation renders "sweet calamus:" see also Isai. xliii. 24. also EXPOSITORY INDEX, On Exod. xxx. 23. where the best is supposed to come from India, which agrees with the "far country" of the prophet. SESAMUM, INDIAN.

The callus, or hard substance, is somewhat globose, yellow, hollow in the apex, perpendicular to both sides of each wing in the upper stalk, whether the pedicle be there or not.

It is cultivated every where in Arabia, Arab. djyl djylan. It is called by the Egyptians sem

sem.

They procure from it an oil, Arab. salit, useful for culinary purposes, and for burning in lamps. F.

It will be seen in EXPOSITORY INDEX, on Isai. xxviii. 25. that we did not well know what to make of the appointed barley; and it appears that the LXX and Jerom took this word to mean another kind of cultivated plant; this acceptation seems to be proper; and we have to consider what plant it can be. The original stands ¡DD nisman, which Mr. Harmer, vol. iv. p. 95. would transform to j we dochan, which signifies "and millet;" but think

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ing this too great a departure from the text, I would rather read sesamun, poop, which varies one letter only; and that by the mere omission of a stroke to complete its form: the facility of this, I need not remark. The passage then would read, he casts abroad the wheat, barley, and sesamun, "in their places." N.B. If we suppose the letter s, D, to have been omitted here, then we may make the N into v, ♪, 1, "and sesamem," otherwise we may read according to the Egyptian name, "and semsemun," pono, supposing the first syllable omitted.

SOAP PLANTS.

SALSOLA KALI, ROUGH. I should suppose the edges of the calyx, Syst. N. met together with female or castrated, and not hermaphrodite flowers; as this is likewise the case in other species of the salsola.

The smooth plant is found in great plenty on the coast of Natolia, over against Tenedos: and is afterward found mixed with the rough, on the coasts of the sea of Marmora, between the villages Eraclissa and Merafte.

SALSOLA, weak kali. It grows on a clayey plain, Sinai.

Several other kinds of salsola kali, are found plentifully between Alexandria and Rosetta at the fort of Boukir; and in the deserts near Cairo, even in the moving sands around the pyramids: it flowers the beginning of March. Arab. æræjam tartir. Another kind is called sjok al hanasch, "serpents' thistle;" because they creep under it, and lie down it grows near Alexandria, at the catacombs. Flowers the end of September; in the hottest of weather; the driest of plants.

:

Salsola IMBRICATA. Arab. harm, is grateful

food to camels.

SUAEDA MONAICA.

It has one large seed, covered with a calyx. It is a low, spreading shrub, growing as big as a tree, and has flowers almost the whole year. Alexandria and Lohaja. Arab. asul.

OBS. This is the plant from which the Yemen Arabs extract hotam, or doluk, that is, sal alkali; which they dissolve in water, and soak their clothes in it, before they are washed with soap, which is a valuable commodity in these parts.

SUEDA, asal. From this is procured hotamor or doluk, i.e. alkaline. Is it the borith of the Hebrews, used by their fullers, or may it give any light on that article? F. SPIKENARD. Vide on Cant. iv. 13. Plate. STAPELIA, sak el ghorab. Not eatable. Reported to be a foreigner, though it appears to be entirely dead, yet it will revive after a long time, if the earth around it be watered. F. Was this one of the plants Job had in view? xiv. 9. TARES, vide ZIZANIA.