38 DIVI BUTAN1CI. 



neither, as to think it worth his while to carry home a stinking* man- 

 drake. Besides, Rachel might have sent a servant lo gather amiable 

 flowers, that is to say Lilies, Violets, or the like : moreover, the He- 

 brew word seems to confirm this opinion, as being in the dual num- 

 ber, and thus implying a relation of more than one fruit to one and 

 the same stalk." — The same author mentions another plant belonging 

 to the Musaceous family. But, he observes, " the tree that goes by 

 the name of Ensetef is not to be passed over without admiration ; 

 being like that which bears the Indian fig, two fathoms in thickness. 

 Being half cut down, it renews itself again by means of innumerable 

 shoots that spring again from the remaining trunk, all which is fit to 

 be eaten ; so that there is no need that the tree should bear any other 

 fruit, it being all pot-herb of itself. Being sliced and boiled, it as- 

 suages the thirst of the common sort of people, who bruise the leaves 

 and boil them with meal, and then eat the composition instead of a 

 hasty-pudding." Another writer,;); remarking on the Mandrake and 

 its virtues, confirms the historian's opinion. He notes, that " when 

 the Male Mandrake is ripe in July, it contains a golden coloured fruit 

 as big as a pear-maine, which yields a whitish flat seed that affects 

 the nose with a narcotick stuffing odour. By its hogo and foetid 

 scent, it must have a soporiferous nature : it is never used inwardly, 



■ Dr. Hasselquist remarks, that the Arabs of Galilee call the Mandrake 

 by a name which signifies the Devil's Victuals, in their language. — Travels in 

 the Levant ; 8vo, London, 17G7 ; p- 160. 



■f This appears to be the plant which Bruce, the well-known Abyssinian 

 traveller, proposed to introduce as a species into the Musaceous family. We 

 learn from his observations, that its fruit is disagreeably bitter in its natural 

 state ; but that, when prepared according to the fashion of the country, it 

 makes a most wholesome and nutritious aliment, yielding a savour like the 

 taste of cheese. 



X This view of the question appears in a rare little Treatise, evincing a 

 spirit of modest christian piety and bearing the title " Theoj.obotanologia 

 sive Historia Vegetabilium Sacra ; or, a Scripture Herbal, wherein all the 

 trees, shrubs, herbs, flowers and fruits mentioned in the Holy Bible are ra- 

 tionally discoursed of; by William Westmacott, of Newcastle-under-Line, 



physician; 12mo, Londor, 1694, p. 105 — 108 Adrian Cocquius, in his 



learned and curious Contemplations on the Sacred Phytology, enters into a 

 formal disquisition upon the same subject ; and, by a systematic induction, 

 he arrives at the conclusion — that the Dudaim positively does not signify 

 Mandrakes, but is " pomum et malum aureum," a golden coloured apple, or 

 apple-like fruit — a description not inappropriate to that of the Banana or 

 Plantain-tree and its luxurious clusters. See his Historia ac Contemplatio Sa- 

 cra plantarum, arborum et herbarum quarum fit mentio in Sacra Scripturd ; 4to, 

 Vlksingm, 1664, p. 190—200. 



