58 Mr. Frost on the Mustard Tree of the Scriptures. 



radoxical; for what we know under that name is procured from 

 an annual plant, (sinapis nigra of Linnaeus,) which has an herbace- 

 ous stem, and never attains a greater height than three feet ; there- 

 fore it is quite evident that that cannot he the plant referred to, 

 the word KtJpM, which is used, implying a shrub, or tree, and 

 of course not any plant like sinapis nigra, with an herbaceous 

 stem. I am not acquainted with any species of sinapis that can 

 be called a shrub, much less a tree. 



The author of a Theological Dictionary, of some repute at the 

 present day, has stated under the article mustard seed, that the 

 mustard tree alluded to by our Saviour was a species of sinapis, 

 and asserts as a proof of the correctness of his definition, the fruit 

 of all the members of that genus having a cruciform corolla. 



The plant most likely to be the mustard tree of the Scriptures 

 is a species of Phytolacca *, which grows abundantly in Palestine ; 

 it has the smallest seed of any tree in that country, and attains as 

 great an altitude as any. This circumstance, together with that 

 of its being indigenous to the place where the observation was 

 made, are sufficient to convince us of the identity of the tree 

 referred to. In addition to which I can adduce two facts which 

 will greatly tend to confirm this opinion. 



The first is, that of the Americans using the fresh sliced root of 

 Phytolacca Decandrat for the same purpose as we use mustard 

 seed, viz., that of a Cataplasm. I have been informed that they 

 call it (P. decandra,) wild mustard. 



The second is, that of the seed of a species of Phytolacca afford- 

 ing what the seed of sinapis nigra does in great abundance, ni- 

 trogen ; an element not found in many plants, excepting those 

 which belong to the natural orders Cruciatae and Fungi. These 



It may here be proper to state that the term trwa-ruus a ffwavi, in the original 

 language of the New Testament, does not signify the seed which is obtained 

 from any species of the genus which we know hy the term Sinapis. 



* Phytolacca, derived from <pvrev, a plant, and lacca, or lac, a gum resi- 

 nous exudation, of a red colour. The petioles of every species of Phytolacca, 

 which I have seen, have a degree of redness, more or less. 



t This is a perennial herbaceous plant, a native of Virginia, occasionally 

 found in our gardens under the name of the American Soke-Weed. 



