250 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



warm taste, accompanied with an aromatic flavor, not of he most 

 agreeable kind. The Jews sowed it in their fields, and when ripe, 

 thrashed put the seeds with a rod, Isaiah xxviii. 25, 27. The Mal- 

 tese sow it, and collect the seeds in the same manner. Our Lord 

 reproved the Scribes and Pharisees for so scrupulously paying the 

 tithe of mint, anise and cummin, while they neglected good works, 

 and more essential obedience to God's law, Matt, xxiii. 23. 



ANISE. 



PROFESSOR CAMPBELL has pointed out the mistake into which 

 our translators have fallen, by confounding two words which have 

 no connexion andhon and anison; the former is that used in the 

 text, and signifies, not anise, but dill : the latter denotes anise, but it 

 does not occur in the sacred writings. 



HYSSOP. 



THIS vegetable receives its name from its detersive and cleansing 

 qualities, whence it was used in sprinkling the blood of the paschal 

 lamb (Exod. xii. 22;) in cleansing the leprosy (Lev. xiv. 4, 6, 51, 

 52;) in composing the water of purification (Numb. xix. 6,) and 

 also in sprinkling it, ver. 18. It was typical of the purifying virtue 

 of the bitter sufferings of Christ, and it is plain, from Ps. li. 9, that 

 the Psalmist understood its import. 



The hyssop is an herb of a bitter taste, and grows on the moun- 

 tains near Jerusalem, as well as on the walls of the city. Hassel- 

 quist speaks of some which was a very diminutive moss a strik- 

 ing contrast to the tall and majestic cedar. See 1 Kings iv. 33. 



Bochart, Scheuchzer, Parkhurst, and other critics, to get rid of a 

 supposed discrepancy between the evangelists, have conceived that 

 the hyssop of John xix. 29 must be considered as synonymous 

 with the reed or cane of Matt, xxvii. 48, and Mark xv. 36 ; and 

 hence Wolfius has taken some pains to show that there was a 

 species of hyssop whose stalk was sometimes two feet long, and 

 therefore sufficient to reach a person on a cross, that was by no 

 means so lofty as some have erroneously conceived. But the diffi- 

 culty, as Dr. Harris has shown, is not in the text itself, which is 

 sufficiently imelligible, and clearly compatible with the statement 

 of the other evangelists. John does not mention the reed ; but 

 says, that when they had put the sponge upon hyssop ; that is, 

 when they Jiad added bitttr to the sour, or gall to the vinegar, they 

 advance jt to our Saviour's mouth, no doubt, with the reed. 



