DIVI B0TAN1CI. 37 



cate the probability, that the Musa with its luscious clusters might 

 be the proper Dudaim which tempted Rachel to indulge the fancy of 

 a devious imagination. Allied to this, was the judgment expressed 

 by Job Ludolph, whose immense learning exalted his philosophy, the 

 fruit of foreign travel and contemplation. His account of the Abys- 

 sinian* vegetable productions comprises the remarks — that " the In- 

 dian-fig, which the Arabians call muz or mauz, grows plentifully here, 

 and a most excellent fruit it is : you shall have fifty figs about the 

 bigness and shape of a cucumber hanging upon one stalk, of a most 

 delicious odour and taste. They are ripe in June : near Damascus 

 they are rare, for they require a hotter climate. These circumstances 

 make me believe that this same fruit may be the Dudaim mentioned 

 in Genesis, which occasioned so much discontent between Jacob's two 

 wives. Soon after, I observed that many learned men had lighted 

 upon the same conjecture, though they do not give their reasons. 

 My opinion is, that it should be some rare and pleasant fruit that 

 could have moved the boy to gather it ; yet not so much a boy 



Fallopio, M. D. of Padua, whom the ransomed and grateful philophy tist suc- 

 ceeded in the professorship of Botany, in the university of that celebrated 

 city. His writings attest his learning and his zeal for the advancement of 

 that science to which his best energies were devoted. His observations on 

 the most remarkable exotic plants and their nomenclature, are embodied in 

 his Epistolce de Stirpium. aliquot Nominibus vetustis ac novis, quce multis jam 

 sceculis aut ignorarunt Medici vel de its dubitarunt : 4to, Basilea, 1557- 



* Job Ludolph stands high on the roll of eminent German philologers : 

 he was born at Erfurt in 1624, and he died in 1704, in the enjoyment of 

 well-merited distinction as a linguist, an antiquary, a traveller, a gramma- 

 rian and an oriental scholar. He was the author of more than a dozen of 

 curious and valuable works, among which were, an Amharic grammar, an 

 Ethiopic grammar and dictionary, and the Historia JEthiopica, sive descriplio 

 ream Jfabessinorum ijuod vulgo male Presbyteri Johannis rocatur; folio, Franco- 

 furti ad Moenum, 1681. This interesting volume was translated into English 

 and published, folio, London, 1682 : it is illustrated with engraved figures, 

 and the best of these is a graphic representation of the Mvsa sapientum, the 

 Banana, here denominated " the Herbe and Fruite called in Hebrew Du- 

 daim, and in the Arabic language Mauz or Muza, the Indian figge:" and 

 the plate exhibits " the herbe itself growing like a tree; the ripe fruite, with 

 forty or fifty figges upon one stalke : one figge in its full proportion ; and 

 the young shootes that spring from the root of the tree every yeare." There 

 is another tree which the traveller praises as " most excellent against worms 

 in the belly, a distemper frequent among the Habessines by reason of their 

 feeding upon raw (lesh, and for remedy whereof they purge themselves once 

 a month with the fruit of this tree which causes them to void all their 



