PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 131 



parts of Scripture for the sycamore or tree of that 

 denomination with us ; which is properly but one kind 

 or difference of accr, and bears no fruit with any 

 resemblance unto a fig. 



But you will rather, thereby, apprehend the true and 

 genuine sycamore or sycaminus, which is a stranger in 

 our parts. A tree (according to the description of 

 Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen), resembling a 

 mulberry tree in the leaf, but in the fruit a fig ; which 

 it produceth not in the twigs but in the trunk or greater 

 branches, answerable to the sycamore of Egypt, the 

 Egyptian fig or gianwz. of the Arabians, described by 

 Prosper Alpinus, with a leaf somewhat broader than a 

 mulberry, and in its fruit like a fig. Insomuch that 

 some have fancied it to have had its first production 

 from a fig tree grafted on a mulberry. It is a tree 

 common in Judaea, whereof thev made frequent use 

 in buildings ; and so understood, it explaineth that 

 expression in Isaiah 1 : " Sycamori exc'ui sunt, cedros 

 substituanus . The bricks are fallen down, but we will 

 build with hewn stones : the sycamores are cut down, 

 but we will change them into cedars." 



It is a broad spreading tree, not only fit for walks, 

 groves, and shade, but also affording profit. And 

 1 Isaiah \x. 10. 



