from that word; since juniper abounds with a piercing oil, and makes a smart fire. And the rather, if that quality be half true, which Pliny affirmeth, that the coals of juniper raked up will keep a glowing fire for the space of a year. For so the expression will emphatically imply, not only the "smart burning but the lasting fire of their malice." That passage of Job,* wherein he complains that poor and half-famished fellows despised him, is of greater difficulty; “For want and famine they were solitary, they cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for meat." Wherein we might at first doubt the translation, not only from the Greek text, but the assertion of Dioscorides, who affirmeth that the roots of juniper are of a venomous quality. But Scaliger hath disproved the same from the practice of the African physicians, who use the decoction of juniper roots against the venereal disease. The Chaldee reads it genista, or some kind of broom, which will be also unusual and hard diet, except thereby we understand the orobanche, or broom rape, which groweth from the roots of broom; and which, according to Dioscorides, men used to eat raw or boiled, in the manner of asparagus. And, therefore, this expression doth highly declare the misery, poverty, and extremity, of the persons who were now mockers of him; they being so contemptible and necessitous, that they were fain to be content, not with a mean diet, but such as was no diet at all, the roots of trees, the roots of juniper, which none would make use of for food, but in the lowest necessity, and some degree of famishing. 38. While some have disputed whether Theophrastus knew the scarlet berry, others may doubt whether that noble tincture were known unto the Hebrews, which, notwithstanding, seems clear from the early and iterated expressions of Scripture concerning the scarlet tincture, and is the less to be doubted, because the scarlet berry grew plentifully in the land of Canaan, and so they were furnished with the materials of that colour. For though Dioscorides saith it groweth in Armenia and Cappadocia; yet that it also grew in Judæa seems more than probable from the account of Bellonius, who observed it to be so plentiful in that * Job xxx. 3, 4. country, that it afforded a profitable commodity, and great quantity thereof was transported by the Venetian merchants. How this should be fitly expressed by the word tolagnoth, vermis, or worm, may be made out from Pliny, who calls it coccus scolecius, or the wormy berry; as also from the name of that colour called vermilion, or the worm colour and which is also answerable unto the true nature of it. For this is no proper berry containing the fructifying part, but a kind of vesicular excrescence, adhering commonly to the leaf of the ilex coccigera, or dwarf and small kind of oak, whose leaves are always green, and its proper seminal parts acorns. This little bag containeth a red pulp, which, if not timely gathered, or left to itself, produceth small red flies, and partly a red powder, both serviceable under the tincture. And, therefore, to prevent the generation of flies, when it is first gathered, they sprinkle it over with vinegar, especially such as make use of the fresh pulp for the confection of alkermes; which still retaineth the Arabic name, from the kermes-berry; which is agreeable unto the description of Bellonius and Quinqueranus. And the same we have beheld in Provence and Languedoc, where it is plentifully gathered, and called manna rusticorum, from the considerable profit which the peasants make by gathering of it. 39. Mention is made of oaks in divers parts of Scripture, which though the Latin sometimes renders a turpentine tree, yet surely some kind of oak may be understood thereby; but whether our common oak, as is commonly apprehended, you may well doubt; for the common oak, which prospereth so well with us, delighteth not in hot regions. And that diligent botanist, Bellonius, who took such particular notice of the plants of Syria and Judæa, observed not the vulgar oak in those parts. But he found the ilex, chesne vert, or evergreen oak, in many places; as also that kind of oak which is properly named esculus: and he makes mention thereof in places about Jerusalem, and in his journey from thence unto Damascus, where he found montes ilice, et esculo virentes; which in his discourse of Lemnos, he saith are always green. And therefore when it is said of Absalom, that "his mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth,”* that oak might be some ilex or rather esculus. For that is a thick and bushy kind, in orbem comosa, as Dalechampius; ramis in orbem dispositis comans, as Renealmus describeth it. And when it is said that "Ezechias broke down the images, and cut down the groves," they might much consist of oaks, which were sacred unto Pagan deities, as this more particularly, according to that of Virgil, Nemorumque Jovi quæ maxima frondet And, in Judæa, where no hogs were eaten by the Jews, and few kept by others, 'tis not unlikely that they most cherished the esculus, which might serve for food for men. For the acorns thereof are the sweetest of any oak, and taste like chesnuts; and so, producing an edulious or esculent fruit, is properly named esculus. They which know the ilex or evergreen oak, with somewhat prickled leaves, named pivos, will better understand the irreconcileable answer of the two elders, when the one accused Susanna of incontinency under a πpivos or evergreen oak, the other under a oxivos, lentiscus, or mastic tree, which are so different in bigness, boughs, leaves, and fruit, the one bearing acorns, the other berries: and without the knowledge, will not emphatically or distinctly understand that of the poet, Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella. 40. When we often meet with the cedars of Libanus, that expression may be used, not only because they grew in a known and neighbour country, but also because they were of the noblest and largest kind of that vegetable: and we find the Phoenician cedar magnified by the ancients. The cedar of Libanus is a coniferous tree, bearing cones or clogs (not berries) of such a vastness, that Melchior Lussy, a great traveller, found one upon Libanus, as big as seven men could compass. Some are now so curious as to keep the branches and cones thereof among their rare collections. And, though * 2 Sam. xviii. 9, 14. + 2 Kings xviii. 4. much cedar wood be now brought from America, yet 'tis time to take notice of the true cedar of Libanus, employed in the temple of Solomon: for they have been much destroyed and neglected, and become at last but thin. Bellonius could reckon but twenty-eight, Rowolfius and Radzivil but twenty-four, and Bidulphus the same number. And a later account of some English travellers* saith, that they are now but in one place, and in a small compass, in Libanus.6 Quando ingressi fueritis terram, et plantaveritis in illa ligna pomifera, auferetis præputia eorum. Poma quæ germinant, immunda erunt vobis, nec edetis ex eis. Quarto autem anno, omnis fructus eorum sanctificabitur, laudabilis domino. Quinto autem anno comedetis fructus. By this law they were enjoined not to eat of the fruits of the trees which they planted for the first three years: and, as the vulgar expresseth it, to take away the prepuces, from such trees, during that time: the fruits of the fourth year being holy unto the Lord, and those of the fifth allowable unto others. Now if auferre præputia be taken, as many learned men have thought, to pluck away the bearing buds, before they proceed unto flowers or fruit, you will readily apprehend the metaphor, from the analogy and similitude of those sprouts and buds, which, shutting up the fruitful particle, resembleth the preputial part. And you may also find herein a piece of husbandry not mentioned in Theophrastus or Columella. For by taking away of the buds and hindering fructification, the trees be * A Journey to Jerusalem, 1672. 6 in a small compass, &c.] Burckhardt thus describes the cedars of Libanus:-"They stand on uneven ground, and form a small wood. Of the oldest and best-looking trees, I counted eleven or twelve; twentyfive 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.”Travels in Syria, 19, 20. come more vigorous, both in growth and future production. By such a way king Pyrrhus got into a lusty race of beeves, and such as were desired over all Greece, by keeping them from generation until the ninth year. And you may also discover a physical advantage in the goodness of the fruit, which becometh less crude and more wholesome, upon the fourth or fifth year's production. 41. While you read in Theophrastus or modern herbalists, a strict division of plants, into arbor, frutex, suffrutex et herba, you cannot but take notice of the Scriptural division at the creation, into tree and herb; and this may seem too narrow to comprehend the class of vegetables; which, notwithstanding, may be sufficient, and a plain and intelligible division thereof. And therefore, in this difficulty concerning the division of plants, the learned botanist, Casalpinus, thus concludeth, clarius agemus si alterá divisione neglectâ, duo tantum plantarum genera substituamus, arborem scilicet, et herbam, conjungentes cum arboribus fructices, et cum herba suffrutices; frutices being the lesser trees, and suffrutices the larger, harder, and more solid herbs. And this division into herb and tree may also suffice, if we take in that natural ground of the division of perfect plants, and such as grow from seeds. For plants, in their first production, do send forth two leaves adjoining to the seed; and then afterwards, do either produce two other leaves, and so successively before any stalk; and such go under the name of róa, ßorávn or herb; or else, after the two first leaves succeeded to the seed leaves, they send forth a stalk or rudiment of a stalk, before any other leaves, and such fall under the classes of dévdpov or tree. So that, in this natural division, there are but two grand differences, that is, tree and herb. The frutex and suffrutex have the way of production from the seed, and in other respects the suffrutices or cremia, have a middle and participating nature, and referable unto herbs. 42. "I have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a green bay tree."7 Both Scripture and human 7 flourishing, &c.] "Spreading himself (is the English version) like a green bay tree :"-more accurately "like a native tree"-a tree grow |