40 CHAPTER V. 



in fact it has completely baffled them. As a general 

 rule it is rendered " Oak," but sometimes " Elm." 

 The worst mistranslation of the word is that in 

 Genesis xiii. 18 : " Then Abram removed his tent, and 

 came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre." The 

 passage should read thus : " He came and pitched his 

 tent under the Terebinth tree at Mamre." Near the 

 spot where the Jordan enters the Lake of Galilee 

 there is a famous Terebinth, on which the natives 

 hang rags and votive offerings. 



A third Pistacia (P. Vera) occurs now and then 

 in gardens here. It is a dioecious tree. This is a 

 drawback from the market gardener's point of view, 

 because, in order to obtain fruit, he is obliged to 

 grow a useless staminate tree which takes up room ; 

 so he remedies the defect in a very ingenious manner : 

 he grafts a staminate twig in the middle of the 

 pistillate tree, thus producing a pseudo-monoecious 

 plant. The fruit is used in confectionery. Among 

 the presents sent by Jacob to Joseph (Genesis xliii. 11) 

 were Pistacia Nuts. 



Of the same order as the Mastic and the 

 Terebinth is the Sumach or Wig Tree (Rhus Cotinus ; 

 French " Arbre a Perruque "), a shrub with alternate 

 exstipulate suborbicular leaves, which turn to a bright 

 red in Autumn : one of the commonest shrubs in 

 every copse and hanger. The Sumach is easily 

 recognised, for when Winter approaches it stands out 

 as a dash of fiery colour, strongly contrasted with the 

 dark shades of the evergreen Mastic and the fading 

 tints of the deciduous trees. The Sumach gives the 

 signal for Summer to depart. At other times of the 

 year the Wig Tree may be known by its extraordinary 



