166 CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. \June, 



The analogy, if not very delicate, is not far-fetched. This is one 

 of the beauties of Oriental metaphor. If we knew the thing, we 

 could have no difficulty in understanding the allusion. The bird's- 

 milk of the Greeks, which the Greek name signifies, is not so ex- 

 pressive as the Hebrew, because it is unnatural. Bird's-milk is 

 unknown in the West, except here and there on the first of April, 

 when strap-oil, essence of mite-horn shavings, and similar nonen- 

 tities are in request among those not distinguished for mental 

 perspicacity. 



The '' cab of dove^s-dung,^^ sold at a high price during the siege, 

 is universally believed to have been a measure of the bulbous 

 roots of a species of what we call the Star of Bethlehem. Its 

 very name points to its Eastern origin. It is exceedingly plenti- 

 ful in Sicily, where it is a weed in the cornfields. Is it known as 

 an edible root in the present day? The inhabitants of Kam- 

 tchatka cultivate a species of Lily for food, and store its roots 

 as we store potatoes. 



The perpetual desolations threatened by the ancient prophets are 

 very graphically expressed by such descriptions as that of Isaiah, 

 when he foretells the destruction of Idumsea and of a people cui'sed 

 of God (the people of my curse) : " Thorns shall spring up in her 

 palaces; nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof;" and again, 

 "Moab shall be a breeding- place for nettles;" also, "Nettles 

 shall possess them, thorns shall be in their tabernacles." Those 

 who have visited English monastic remains, or who have seen the 

 sites -of old castles and spacious houses now in ruins, will appre- 

 ciate the faithfulness of these descriptions, and the poetic beauty 

 and expressive energy of the prophetic diction which gives so 

 lively a representation of the grandeur of desolation. 



The Tare, in the Scripture parable, like the Hyssop, is probably 

 - a word which expresses more than one kind of plant. Most 

 writers agree that the Tares among Wheat mean our Darnel, or 

 Lolium temulentum, which grows in Judsea as well as in England, 

 and only in cultivated places. The grain of this weed is poison- 

 ous and intoxicating. (See 'Phytologist,' n. s. vol. i. p. 167.) But 

 it may also be a species of Vicia ; for though the plant which we 

 call Tare be a very useful agrarial, yet there are several kinds 

 in this country, as Ficia hirsuta and V. tetrasperma, etc., that 

 are very injurious in agriculture. 



Names of poisonous plants appear here and there in sacred 



