^j2 Dfant "Isore, "begeT^/, cmel bL^nc/, 



bowed down its branches to shade and refresh His mother. Sozo- 

 menos relates that, when the Holy P'amily reached the end of their 

 journey, and approached the city of Heliopolis, in Egypt, a tree 

 which grew before the gates of the city, and was regarded with 

 great veneration as the seat of a god, bowed down its branches at 



the approach of the infant Christ. Judaea was typified by the 



Date Palm upon the coins of Vespasian and Titus. With the Jews, 

 the Date Palm has always been the symbol of triumph, and they 

 carry branches of it in their right hands, in their synagogues, at the 

 Feast of the Tabernacles, in commemoration of their forefathers 

 having gained possession of the Promised Land. In the Christian 

 Church, the remembrance of the Saviour's ride into Jerusalem amid 

 the hosannas of the people, is associated with the waving of the 



branches of the Date Palm by the joyous multitude. An ardent 



spirit, distilled from Dates and water, is much used by Mahom- 

 medans, as it does not come within the prohibition of the Koran 

 against wine. Palm wine is also made from the Date ; it is the sap 

 or juice of the tree, and can only be obtained by its destrucftion. 



A curious folk-lore tale of the Chinese records how Wang Chih, 



a patriarch of the Taouist sedl:, when one day gathering fire-wood 

 in the mountains of Ku Chow, entered a grotto where some old men 

 were playing at chess. One of the old men handed him a Date- 

 stone, telling him to put it into his mouth. This done, he ceased 

 to feel hunger or thirst. By-and-bye, one of the players said : " It 

 is long since you came here — return at once." Wang Chih went 

 to take up his axe, and found the handle had mouldered into dust. 

 He went home, but found that centuries had elapsed since the 

 day he set out to cut wood: thereupon he retired to a mountain 

 cell, and devoting himself to religious exercises, finally attained 

 immortality. 



DEAD TONGUE.— The Water Hemlock {CEnanthe cvocata) 

 has received the name of Dead Tongue from its paralysing effecfts 

 on the organs of voice. Threlkeld tells of eight lads who had 

 eaten it, and of whom " five died before morning, not one of them 

 having spoken a word." Gerarde relates, that this plant having 

 by mistake been eaten in a salad, " it did well nigh poyson those 

 that ate of it, making them giddie in their heads, waxing very pale, 

 staggering, and reeling like drunken men." The plant is de- 

 scribed as "one of Saturn's nosegays." 



Deadly Nightshade, or Death's Herb. — See Nightshade. 

 DEODAR. — The sacred Indian Cedar [Cedrus Deodara) forms 

 vast forests in the mountains of Northern India, where it grows to 

 a height varying from fifty to a hundred feet and upwards. It is 

 the Devaddru, or tree-god of the Shastras, which, in many of the 

 ancient hymns of the Hindus, is the symbol of power and ma- 

 jesty. The tree is often mentioned by the Indian poets. It was 

 introduced into this country in 1822. 



