24 Mr Lambert on the Apples of Sodom. 
this account the Oskar and Solanum seem alike entitled to 
the distinction ; and for the same reason, the pomegranate 
must altogether be excluded from consideration. The fruit 
of the Solanum Melongena, which belongs to the same genus as 
the common potato, is white, resembling a large egg, and is 
said to impart an agreeable acid flavour to soups and sauces, 
for the sake of which it is cultivated in the South of Europe. 
This could hardly be what Tacitus and Josephus re‘erred to. 
It is possible, indeed, that what they describe may have origi- 
nated, like the oak-galls in this country, in the work of some 
insect ; for these remarkable productions sometimes require a 
considerable size and beauty of colour. Future travellers will 
be inexcusable if they leave this question undecided.— T7ans- 
actions of the Linnwan Society of London, Vel. xvii., Part 3d, 
p. 445. 
II. Cn the Apples of Sodom. By Dr Rosrxson. 
Apples of Sodom.—One of the first objects which attracted 
our notice on arriving at Ain Jidy was a tree with singular 
fruit, which, without knowing at the moment whether it had 
been observed by former travellers or not, instantly suggested 
to our minds the far-famed fruits 
which grew 
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom stood. 
This was the Osher of the Arabs, 4sclepias gigantea vel 
procera of botanists,* which is found in abundance in Upper 
Egypt and Nubia, and also in Arabia Felix ; but seems to be 
confined in Palestine to the borders of the Dead Sea. We 
saw it only at Ain Jidy; Hasselquist found it in the desert 
between Jericho and the northern shore; and Irby and Man- 
gles met with it of large size at the south end of the sea, and 
on the isthmus of the peninsula.t 
* Sprengel, Hist. Rei Herbar. i. p. 252. 
+ Hasselquist, Reise, p. 151. Irby and Mangles’ Travels, pp. 354, 450. 
Comp. Seetzen in Zach’s Monat]. Corresp. xviii. p. 442. Burckhardt, p. 392. 
