1858.] BIBLICAL BOTANY, ^ 499 



p. 347. Ophioglossum vulgare. 1. Abundant at Tewin Water. 



p. 348. Blechnum boreale. 8. Aldenham Wood : S. P. 



p. 349. Asplenium Rut a-mur aria. 1. Brockett Park wall. 2. 

 Old walls at Temple Dinsley : M. B., 1857 ! E. E. 



p. 350. Ceterach ojfficmarum. "^11 . On a garden-wall, at Grave- 

 ley, abundant, and, I think, spontaneous : B. B. 



p. 351. Scolopendriwn vulgare. 11. Near Purwell Mill: R. B. 



p. 352. Aspidium lobatum. 11. Lane leading from Thistley 

 Farm to Hitch Wood, 1857 ; also at West Wood ; also at the side 

 of a copse near Offley, plentiful. — Var. aculeatum. 11. Brick-kiln 

 Wood and Beech- wood, Chisfield; near Preston : B. B. 



p. 353. Aspidium angidare. 11. Vicarage Grove, near Ippo- 

 litts; near Westwood : B. B. 



p. 353. Aspidium, Oreopteris. 8. Aldenham Wood : S. P. 



p. 353. Aspidium dilatatum. 2. Waterend Marsh : E. E. 



p. 354. Aspidium spinulosum. "^8. Aldenham Wood : S. P. 

 *11. Near Purwell Mill: B. B. 



BIBLICAL BOTANY. 



"A Reader of the Word" asks if Prunus spinosa groAvs in 

 Palestine. I beg leave to refer him to the following passage 

 in Lady Calcott^s ' Scripture Herbal :' — " Choach, Prunus syl- 

 vestris, Sloe, or Black-thorn, one of the commonest wild shrubs 

 of Jewry, is translated ' thickets' in the First Book of Samuel. In 

 the Second Books of Kings and of Chronicles it is rendered 

 'thistles.' In one place of Job we find 'thistles,' in another 'covert,' 

 for the same word ; but in all the other texts, and they are not 

 few, Choach is translated Thorns, and should be Black-thorn." 

 I further find that in the marginal note of Bagster's Bible, to 

 which your correspondent referred, there is this important ad- 

 dition in support of Choach being the Prunus spinosa, " as the 

 same word signifies in Arabic." In reference to the extract 

 from Turner's 'Herbal,' which says that " acantha in Greek, 

 and spina in Latin, signify a thistle, and not thorn," I fear 

 I must be so uncourteous as to ignore the authority of the 

 ' Herbal' on the mere question of interpretation, and maintain 

 the correctness of the present translation, " thorns," in the pa- 

 rable of the Sower. 



