1859.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 139 



more tiny and slender plants than the branches of the Mustard- 

 plant : these sit on the very tops of the Ai'undo Phragmites. If 

 we were to make allowance for the greater size which vegetation 

 may reach in some parts of Palestine^ it would not be necessary 

 to invent plants which may, to our poor, formal understandings, 

 appear to agree better with the descriptions of Divine wisdom 

 than the more common things do. 



The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitter herbs at the 

 Divine commandment. Thomas Newton, the venerable translator 

 of ' Levinus Lemnius/ says, " With soure hearbes, or wild lettuce, 

 . . . because in this life all things are bitter, troublesome, 

 grievous, and full of calamitie, having in it a great deal more of 

 aloe than of honie, much greater store of miserie than of tran- 

 quillite.^^ Our traditional custom of eating lamb at Easter is 

 probably derived from this ancient, sacred source, only we take 

 the liberty of eating our lamb not with bitter but with sweet 

 herbs, Mentha sativa or M. viridis, plants which also grow in 

 the Holy Land, and probably were used as condiments by the 

 Jews as we now use them with our lamb and green peas. 



Several of our condiment-plants are Oriental, viz. Coriander, 

 Fennel, Parsley, etc. 



There is no plant mentioned in Holy Scripture which has given 

 rise to more speculation than the Hyssop^ plant, viz. that which 

 was used in the rites of purification, and probably another, men- 

 tioned in antithesis with the Cedar, in the Book of Kings, where 

 Solomen's acquaintance with botany is recorded. It is also men- 

 tioned in the account of the Crucifixion. Much learned labour 

 has been thrown away on the attempt to identify this plant. 

 Celsius, the polyhistor of the last century, produces a formidable 

 list of plants and authorities and opinions, given in all the lan- 

 guages of the East, and in many of the West also. 



The chief of these supposed species are Abrotanon, Absinthium, 

 Adiantum Cap.- Veneris, Alsine, Rosemary, Mint, Marjoram, Pen- 

 nyroyal, Thyme, Tree-Mallow, Genista (Cytisus), Juniper, Reed, 

 etc. etc. 



* Dr. Kitto notices the Hyssop of Palestine, and describes it as a slirubby plant, 

 about eighteen inches high. With this he mentions several Labiate plants, Sage, 

 Thyme, Lavender, Rosemary, Clary, Basil, Foley {Pulegium ?), Mentha sylvestris, 

 and Salvia verbenaca; also some Umbellifers, as Hart wort, Fennel, Hemlock, 

 Shepherd's-needle, and Parsley. 



