RHAMNEÆ. Paliurus Napeca, (Christ's thorn.) Rhamnus Spina Christi, (Buckthorn.) Lycium horridum. HE species of thorn-plants in Palestine are numerous; and the various words in the Hebrew signifying thorns must indicate particular varieties. The paliurus, which is found growing around the Lake of Tiberias, is a beautiful plant, despite the thorn. The seed-vessel is peculiar, being round, flat, and like cork in substance, with the hard seed imbedded in the centre of the encircling rim. The Ziziphus or jujube-bush is found in the same places, and with the paliurus among the Lebanon shrubs. Its branches are armed with unequal thorns opposite each other,—one short and hooked, the other nearly straight and long. According to the Rabbins, there are twenty-two words in the Hebrew Scriptures signifying thorns or prickles. Hence the difficulty of identifying all. The kotz of the Hebrews, according to Celsius, who has described sixteen varieties, means "thorn" in general. The first named, or the paliurus, is called by the Arabs "nabea," according to Hasselquist, who thinks that, as it bore a leaf somewhat similar to that of the ivy, with which conquerors were crowned, it would have been chosen at the trial of our Saviour, in order that to the mockery of such a crown might be added the pain of its double thorn. The rhamnus also grows freely in the country; and this has by some been supposed to be the bush furnishing the thorn: whence its name, Spina Christi. The lycium has piercing, stinging thorns, tnough the appearance of the plant is pleasant. This also is a native of Palestine. The solanum spinosum, or mad apple, is supposed to be the thorn of Prov. xv. 19:-"The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns." The cactus ficus Indica, or enormous prickly pear of Syria, which at present forms the hedges of the country, has been supposed by some to have formed the "hedge of thorns." But the chief argument against this supposition is that after the discovery of America, the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch traders introduced this cactus into the East, for the purpose of raising the cochineal-insect. The plant, finding a suitable soil and climate, has become so general that it has been by some supposed to be indigenous. Ursini, in his Arboretum Biblicum, so far back as 1699, gives a tolerably correct picture of this cactus and supposes it was a thorn of Scripture. From this source, and from the present luxuriant growth of this thorn, have arisen some mistakes of travellers and even of commentators. The solanum spinosum (in the Hebrew chedek) is supposed to be the thorn of Micah vii. 4. Hasselquist found encumbering the ground everywhere the beautiful thorn called the ononis spinosa, or rest-harrow, the latter name given it from the matted state in which its roots are found, preventing cultivation except by great toil. The Swedish botanists supposed, from the frequency and character of the ononis, that this might be the original or principal thorn of the curse, "Thorns also, and thistles, shall it bring forth unto thee." The Rabbins say that the butcher's broom, or the ruscus aculeatus, called also the knee-holly or skewer-wood, is the thorn intended by the Hebrew atad, used as a proper name in Gen. 1. 10" They came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan; and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation." In Judges ix. 14, 15, atad is translated "bramble;" and in Ps. lviii. 9, "thorns." The Arab tradition is that the sons of Ishmael mourned with the sons of Jacob, and planted thorns around the grave and crowned them with flowers and leaves. The ruscus grows in Great Britain in particular districts, where, owing to the character of the woody fibre, which never splinters or gets rough, it is used for skewers: hence the name skewer-wood. One of the commonest wild shrubs of Palestine is the sloe, or black-thorn,-the prunus sylvestris; its name, choach, in Hebrew, is translated "thickets" in 1 Sam. xiii. 6, and "thistles" in Job xxxi. 60 also, but generally, and in many cases, "thorn," -signifying probably the black thorn or sloe, according to Rabbinical ideas. It is well to remember the thorns as well as the flowers; but it would require more knowledge than is at present possessed, to classify and identify all the thorns even of Scripture, much more the thorns and thorny shrubs of the country. VITACEÆ. Vinis Vinifera. OTWITHSTANDING the fact that vineyards exist and wine is made at present in Palestine, it is beyond doubt that the days have long since passed away when the vine flourished throughout the Holy Land. Probably those days ended in the reign of Elizabeth, when the songs of the vineyard in the land were somewhat like the "vintage shouting" of ancient times; for, according to Hakluyt, (see Voyages,) great quantities of Muscadel wine, made in Judea, and especially the fine wines of Askalon, were shipped from the ports of Palestine in that reign. Since then the prohibitions of the Mohammedan law have caused a decrease in the amount annually made. The vine is found wild at the foot of Mount Ararat, in the neighborhood of Noah's first vineyard; but it has spread east and west, into Georgia and Armenia and the northern parts of Persia, where it is also native: it does not, however, seem to flourish in India. Some have supposed that Noah cultivated the vine before the flood and at that early period drank of the wine made from his own vineyard. At present the soil of Egypt is doubtless unfriendly to the vine; but there appears to have been a gradual cessation of the cultivation of the grape, which would give ground for the supposition that before the time of the Exodus the grape was in |