110 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



But for this identification, Sibthorp must be re- 

 garded as an insufficient authority, as he never 

 visited the Holy Land, and the species commonly 

 met with at the Dead Sea, is the Solatium coagulans 

 of Linnaeus, the Sanctum of Forskahl, and the Hiero- 

 cliunticum of Dunal, described by the latter in De- 

 candolle's Prodromus. Robinson, therefore, in his 

 "Biblical Researches 8 ," appears to be mistaken in 

 naming it the S. melongena, a name given by modern 

 botanists to a whole section of the Solanece, and 

 not to the particular species which represents the 

 true apple of Sodom ; nor does he seem warranted 

 in adopting the suggestion originally thrown out 

 by Seetzen l , that the latter plant was an Asclepias. 



It is true, that the Asclepias gigantea or procera, 

 the Osher of the Arabs, is found in a few places 

 on the borders of the Dead Sea, and its fruit when 

 opened contains nothing but a dusty powder. Ac- 

 cording to Robinson, too u , it resembles a large 

 smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of 

 three or four together, and when ripe of a yellow 

 colour ; if so, differing greatly from other mem- 

 bers of the Asclepias tribe, whose seed-vessel cer- 

 tainly bears no sort of resemblance to either of 

 these fruits. 



But I am assured on good authority, that the 

 Asclepias alluded to is an extremely rare plant in 



Vol. i. p. 522. 



* See Kitto's " Physical History of the Holy Land." 



u See Robinson's "Physical Geography of the Holy Land," 1865, 

 p. 215. 



