340 JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON). [Vol. III. 



shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign 

 that shall not be cut off." (Is. lv. 13.) 



The common Myrtle is the plant here meant, and which 

 is very generally grown in gardens in Ceylon. There is a 

 species of the same genus indigenous to the mountains of 

 the interior. 



The Pomegranate elsewhere referred to, as well as the 

 jamhu or "Rose Apple, ' belong to the same family of plants 

 as the myrtle of the Bible. 



Many of you are familiar with Byron's lines, beginning, — 



" Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle 

 Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime.' 



Wild Gourd, Wild Vine. 



" One went out in the held to gather herbs, and found a 

 wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lapful and 

 came and shred them into the pot of pottage : for they knew 

 them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it 

 came to pass as they were eating of the pottage, that they 

 cried out and said, thou man of God, there is death in the 

 pot. And they could not eat thereof." ( 2 Kings iv. 39, 40.) 



You are all familiar with the fact that the above passage 

 refers to the sons of the prophets who were fed by Elisha at 

 Gilgal, when there was a dearth in the land. It is supposed 

 that the herbs which the person who went out wished to col- 

 lect, were the fruits of the "Egg plant," in fact, the Brinjall so 

 commonly eaten in Ceylon ; but that he mistook for it a plant 

 of the Cucumber family, several of which produce poisonous 

 fruits, and the one which is as likely as any other to have 

 been the poisonous plant — the Colocynth plant — is common 

 in the north of Ceylon, where it spreads on the ground, and 

 displays a profusion of beautifully red-colored fruits. It is 

 the cesrf(9>2S53©g, Yak-komadu of the Sinhalese. 



