NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 57 



known passage in the Bible in Numb. chap. xi. v. 5, in which 

 the vegetables of Egypt are mentioned, to which the children 

 of Israel languishing hi the Shiai desert looked back with longing, 

 although this is not to be found in the Lutheran translation. The 

 Hebrew word ahattichlm, incorrectly rendered by Luther, " Pfeben " 

 (an old word denoting a species of Gourd, derived from the Latin 

 Pepo), means, undoubtedly, the water-melon, which still bears 

 the same Arabic name battich. This interpretation appears to us 

 so correct that we may look .upon it as sufficient testimony 

 that the word used by the LXX at this place means water- 

 melons. Also the name of the second cucurbitaceoiis plant men- 

 tioned in this passage of the Bible, viz., kischium is incorrectly 

 translated by Luther by the word Kurhis (the pumpkin) ; it means 

 rather a kind of cucumber, as appears from the translation of the 

 LXX, a-iKvovq. In modern Arabic the word kischidm (sing, kischu) is 

 qittd. Under this name " Chate " Prosper Alpinus figm^es the fruit so 

 common in Egj^t, which when unripe is called adjur, and when ripe 

 dhd-el-aui.^'' It is similar in appearance and taste to a cucumber, 

 but in foliage and flowers to the melon, so that the plant, described 

 by Linn^us as Cucumis Chate, is to be regarded only as a sub- 

 species of C. Melo, L. Whether this naming of Prosper Alpinus 

 is based on a mistake, or whether the usage of the word has since 

 changed, is difficult to decide ; all the later authorities, Forskal,t 

 Delile| and Schweinfurth (in a letter) denote by qittd a form of 

 our common cucumber {C. sativiis, L., Arabic, chidr). According 

 to Dr. Wetzstein,§ a thorough syriologist, the qittd is more 

 than an ell long, but only five-fourths of an inch thick, is ribbed, 

 and its pliability proverbial. It often grows considerably in length 

 in a single night, and on this account is cried (in the market) 

 as "tender and fresh, and has stretched itself in the night." — 

 A, and M.] \\ 



It is well known how important a part was played by the two 

 species of Nympli(Ea, the famous Lotus flowers, widely distributed 

 in central Africa and particularly plentiful now in the Nile 

 Delta, in the religious observances of the ancient Egyptians. 

 From the oldest times, the seeds and rhizome {y.o^aiov, Arabic 



* [According to Unger this is mentioned in Exodus, cap. ix., verse 32* 

 This citation depends, however, on an error, as only one word of disputed 

 raeajiing occurs there, kussemet, on the meaning of which (at this place, 

 probably, spelt, at any rate not rye as Luther translates) [•' rye " also in En^dish 

 version] Dr. Wetzstein expressed his opinion| in this ' Zeitschrift,' v. (1873), 

 p. 281, 282. There is only to be added to his explanation, that the leguminous 

 plant now called in Syria Kursennali is not a variety of Vicia sativa, L., but 

 according to the specimens brought by Dr. Kersten V. Ervilia, Lk. — A. and M.] 



+ Fl. aeg. arab.,' p. 169. 



I ' Descr. de I'Egypte.' Hist. nat. ii.. p. 77. 



§ ' Der raarkt von Damascus. Zeitschr. der Deutschen Morgenland.' 

 Ges. xi. (1857), p. 522, 523. 



II The English version is more correct in its rendering of the fruits 

 mentioned in this passage: — "We remember the rish, which we did eat in 

 Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, and the melons, and ihe leeks, and the onions, and 

 the garlick.' — [Ed. Journ. Bot.'] 



I 



