iz8 PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 



the word in that place, is accounted of the same 

 signification with Xeipiov, and that in Homer is taken 

 for all manner of specious flowers ; so received by 

 Eustachius, Hesychius, and the scholiast upon Apol- 

 lonius, Ka^oAou to. av6r) Aapia Xeyerat. And npivov 

 is also received in the same latitude, not signifying 

 only lilies, but applied unto daffodils, hyacinths, irises, 

 and the flowers of colocynthis. 



Under the like latitude of acception, are many 

 expressions in the Canticles to be received. And 

 when it is said " he feedeth among the lilies," therein 

 may be also implied other specious flowers, not ex- 

 cluding the proper lilies. But in that expression, "the 

 lilies drop forth myrrh," neither proper lilies nor 

 proper myrrh can be apprehended, the one not pro- 

 ceeding from the other, but may be received in a 

 metaphorical sense : and in some latitude may be made 

 out from the roscid and honey drops observable in 

 the flowers of martagon, and inverted flowered lilies, 

 and, 'tis like, is the standing sweet dew on the white 

 eyes of the crown imperial, now common among us. 



And the proper lily may be intended in that ex- 

 pression of i Kings vii., that the brazen sea was of 

 the thickness of a hand breadth, and the brim like a 

 lily. For the figure of that flower being round at the 



