THE HEATH. 297 



plants of a rapid growth. This tree is called at Aleppo, 'Palma 

 Christi.' An oilis made from it called * oleum de keroa ; oleum 

 cicinum ; oleum ficus infernalis.' The Christians and Jews of 

 Mosul [Nineveh] say, it was not the keroa, whose shadow retresh- 

 ed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kera, which has very large leaves, 

 very large fruit, and lasts about four months.' 



The epithet which the prophet uses in speaking of the plant, 

 * son of the night it was, and son of the night it died,' does not com- 

 pel us to believe that it grew in a single night, but either by a 

 strong oriental figure, that it was of rapid growth, or akin to night 

 in the shade it spread for his repose. The figure is not uncommon 

 in the East, and one of our own poets has called the rose ' child of 

 summer.' Nor are we bound to take the expression 'on the mor- 

 row ' as strictly importing the very next day, since the word has 

 reference to much more distant time, Exod. xiii. 5 ; Deut. vi. 20 ; 

 Josh. iv. 6. It might be simply taken as afterwards. The circum- 

 stance of the speedy withering of the flowers and leaves of the ke- 

 roa should not be slightly passed over ; nor that of its present name 

 cicinum (pronouncing the c hard, like fc), which is sufficiently near 

 the kikiun of Jonah. The author of ' Scripture Illustrated ' re- 

 marks, as the history of Jonah expressly says, the Lord prepared 

 this plant, no doubt we may conceive of it as an extraordinary one 

 of its kind, remarkably rapid in its growth, remarkably hard in its 

 stem, remarkably vigorous in its branches, and remarkable for the 

 extensive spread of its leaves and the deep gloom of their shadow ; 

 and, after a certain duration, remarkable for a sudden withering, 

 and a total uselessness to the impatient prophet.' 



On the wild gourds of 2 Kings iv. 39, we have spoken in the ar- 

 ticle on the vine. 



THE HEATH. 



< HE shall be like the heath in the desert,' says the prophet ; < he 

 shall not see when good cometh ; but shall inhabit the parched 

 places in the wilderness, a salt land,' Jer. xvii. 6. And again, 

 * Flee, save yourselves, and be like the heath in the wilderness,' ch. 

 xlviii. 6. But what plant is this heath ? The LXX. and the Vul- 

 gate say, 'a tamarisk:' others 'a leafless tree;' and Parkhurst 

 quotes from Taylor, a blasted tree, stripped of its foliage.' If it be 

 a particular plant, he thinks the tamarisk as likely as any, because 

 these trees have not much beauty to recommend them, their branch- 

 es being produced in so straggling a manner, as not by any art to 

 be trained up regularly : and their leaves are commonly thin upon 

 their branches, and fall away in winter, so that there is nothing to 

 recommend them but their address. But the question presents it- 



