n8 PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 



knowing their natures : whereof holding a pertinent 

 apprehension, you cannot pass over such expressions 

 without some doubt or want of satisfaction in your 

 judgment. Hereof we shall only hint or discourse 

 some few which I could not but take notice of in the 

 reading of holy Scripture. 



Many plants are mentioned in Scripture which are 

 not distinctly known in our countries, or under such 

 names in the original, as they are fain to be rendered 

 by analogy, or by the name of vegetables of good 

 affinity unto them, and so maintain the texual sense, 

 though in some variation from identity. 



i. That plant which afforded a shade unto Jonah, 1 

 mentioned by the name of kikaion, and still retained, at 

 least marginally, in some translations, to avoid obscurity 

 Jerome rendered hedera or ivy ; which notwithstanding 

 (except in its scandent nature) agreed not fully with 

 the other, that is, to grow up in a night, or be con- 

 sumed with a worm ; ivy being of no swift growth, 

 little subject unto worms, and a scarce plant about 

 Babylon. 



2. That hyssop is taken for that plant which cleansed 

 the leper, being a well-scented and very abstersive 

 simple, may well be admitted ; so we be not too 

 1 Jonah iv. 6 a gourd. 



