THORN. 159 



are found, preventing cultivation except by great toil. The 

 Swedish botanists supposed, from the frequency and character 

 of the ononis, that this might be the original or principal thorn 

 of the curse, &quot; Thorns also, and thistles, shall it bring forth 

 unto thee.&quot; 



The Eabbins say that the butcher s broom, or the ruscus 

 aculeatus, called also the knee-holly or skewer-wood, is the 

 thorn intended by the Hebrew atad, used as a proper name in 

 Gen. 1. 10 : &quot; They came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which 

 is beyond Jordan; and there they mourned with a great and 

 very sore lamentation.&quot; In Judges ix. 14, 15, atad is translated 

 &quot;bramble;&quot; and in Ps. Iviii. 9, &quot;thorns.&quot; The Arab tradition 

 is that the sons of Ishmael mourned with the sons of Jacob, and 

 planted thorns around the grave and crowned them with flowers 

 and leaves. The ruscus grows in Great Britain in particular 

 districts, where, owing to the character of the woody fibre, 

 which never splinters or gets rough, it is used for skewers : 

 hence the name skewer-wood. 



One of the commonest wild shrubs of Palestine is the sloe, 

 or black-thorn, the prumis sylvestris ; its name, clioach, in 

 Hebrew, is translated &quot;thickets&quot; in 1 Sam. xiii. 6, and &quot;thistles&quot; 

 in Jobxxxi. 60 also, but generally, and in many cases, &quot;thorn,&quot; 

 signifying probably the black thorn or sloe, according to 

 Rabbinical ideas. It is well to remember the thorns as well as 

 the flowers; but it would require more knowledge than is 

 at present possessed, to classify and identify all the thorns even 

 of Scripture, much more the thorns and thorny shrubs of the 

 country. 



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