296 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE BOX TREE. 



THE box tree, being an evergreen, answers well enough to the 

 Hebrew fashur, which probably implies perpetual viridity. The 

 objection to this tree, that it is not sufficiently stately, seems to 

 possess no weight, because there are associations of objects of an 

 equally disproportionate size, where they participate of a common 

 character, in other parts of the sacred writings. The import of the 

 passages where this tree is spoken of (Isa. xli. 39 ; ch. Ix. '13.), ap- 

 pears to be this \- a perpetual verdure shall succeed to an unbroken 

 barrenness ' I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah 

 tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree ; I will set in the desert the fir 

 tree, and the pine, and the box tree together.' But as we have not 

 sufficient means to ascertain satisfactorily whether this was the 

 tree to which the prophet referred, we prefer to place it in this 

 section. 



THE GOURD. 



M. MICHAELIS in his remarks on Jonah iv. says, ' Celsius appears 

 to me to have proved that it is the ' kiki of the Egyptians.' Hero- 

 dotus says: 'The inhabitants of the marshy grounds in Egypt 

 make use of an oil which they term the kiki, expressed from the 

 Sillicyprian plant. In Greece this plant springs spontaneously 

 without any cultivation ; but the Egyptians sow it on the banks of 

 the river and the canals ; it there produces fruit in abundance, but 

 of a very strong odor. When gathered they obtain from it, either 

 by friction or pressure, unctuous liquid which diffuses an offensive 

 smell, but for burning, it is equal in quality to the oil of olives.' 

 This plant rises with a strong herbaceous stalk to the height often 

 or twelve feet ; and is furnished with very large leaves, not unlike 

 those of the plane tree. Rabbi Kimchi says, that the people of the 

 East plant them before their shops for the sake of the "shade, and 

 to refresh themselves under them. M. Niebhur says, ^1 saw for 

 the first time, at Basra, the plant el-keroa. It has the form of a 

 tree. The trunk appeared to me rather to resemble leaves than 

 wood ; nevertheless, it is harder than that which bears the Adam's 

 fig. Each branch of the keroa has but one large leaf, with six or 

 seven foldings in it. This plant was near a rivulet which watered 

 it amply. At the end of October, 1765, it had risen in five months 

 time, about eight feet, and bore at once flowers and fruit, ripe and 

 unripe. Another tree of this species which had not had so much 

 water, had not grown more in a whole year* The flowers and 

 leares of it which I gathered, withered in a few minutes ; as do all 



