1859.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 167 



history, and are expressive of wrong or injustice; for example, 

 Hos. X. 4, " Swearing falsely iti making a covenant, . . . judg- 

 ment springeth up as liemlock in the furrows thereof.^' Hassel- 

 quist mentions Cicuta virosa, hut he did not observe Conium. 

 The Greeks knew this latter plant, and they employed it in the 

 execution of criminals. Socrates was compelled to drink a bowl 

 of Hemlock, to expiate the freedom of speech in which he in- 

 dulged when discoursing about the mythology of his country- 

 men. Dr. Kitto, in his ' Natural History and Physical Geography 

 of Palestine/ enters Conium as one of its productions. 



The Box and the Fir are mentioned as among the ornamental 

 trees of the Holy Land. " Behold," saith the Lord, by His ser- 

 vant the prophet, " I mil set in the wilderness the fir-tree and 

 the pine and the box-tree together." These trees are natives of 

 Palestine, and they grow well in Britain, though they are ac- 

 counted but doubtfully naturalized species. 



The term Reed,"m. Holy Scripture, is like many other names — 

 rather generic than specific. It usually indicates instability. As 

 a Reed is shaken by the water and by the winds, so the Lord 

 threatened to shake out of their land His rebellious people. The 

 Prophet said to Jeroboam, " For the Lord shall smite Israel as a 

 reed is shaken in the water, and shall root up Israel out of this 

 good land." In speaking of John the Baptist, the Lord declared 

 that he was not a Reed shaken by the wind, i. e. a light, incon- 

 stant man, a temporizer, a weathercock, but a man of integrity, 

 truth, and faithfulness. 



The reliance on such as are not able to render efficient aid is 

 proverbially likened unto one leaning on a staff of Heed, which 

 not only betrayeth him that trusteth thereto, but breaketh and 

 woundeth the hand that holds it. It was foretold that Pharaoh 

 would be to the inhabitants of Judsea only a broken Reed, and 

 thus it proved. 



The Reed, Arundo Donax, in Hebrew, Kaneh, whence we have 

 our word cane, is a native of the south of Europe, as well as of 

 the east ; but our Reed, Arundo Phragmites, or Phragmites vul- 

 garis of some botanists, is a plant of Palestine, noted by later 

 authorites, though not by Hasselquist. With the Reed is usually 

 united the Bulrush, that of which Moses' mother made a little 

 ark, basket, or boat, in which she committed him to the Nile. 

 Some critics have indulged in small criticisms on the celebrated 



