BRIER. 



(Sweet-Brier.) 



Rosa camina. 



variety of the rose seems to be a native of Palestine. 

 Perhaps it wandered from the more distant East many 

 centuries past and first found there a congenial soil. It 

 is susceptible of a cultivation which alters the character 

 of the flower in some respects, producing a larger and 

 more beautiful corolla than it possesses when found wild. 

 Several beautiful varieties in the gardens of England were 

 originally the sweet-brier. 



The word occurs eleven times in the Hebrew Scriptures, but 

 is not always rendered &quot;brier&quot; in the English version, for it 

 also signifies &quot;scorpion;&quot; and the scorpion and brier have some 

 points in common. An ancient method of punishment for 

 crimes was by rods of thorns or briers, which tore the flesh 

 while inflicting the stroke and smart of the ordinary smooth 

 rod. Hence reference may have been made to this mode when 

 Rehoboam (1 Kings xii. 11) very unadvisedly threatened the 

 people, saying, &quot; My father has chastised you with whips, but 

 I will chastise you with scorpions,&quot; that is, with rods or 

 whips made of briers. These words are repeated in the same 

 chapter and in the tenth of Second Chronicles. This was 

 also the method pursued by Gideon when he &quot;taught&quot; the 



61 



