By the Rev. Robert Walsh. 



81 



rine substance, which is sweet and pleasant, and the fruit has 

 the property of retaining a long time it usual size and form. 



Rhamnus Zkyphus. 

 This tree has excited great controversy among botanists, 

 and Linnaeus, Willdknow, Michaux, and Persoon, all 

 differ in their description of it.* Shaw f supposes it was like 

 the Lotus of Theophrastus and Pliny, and Sir James 

 Smith that it was the Paliurus. What is certain however is, 

 that it is the tree which produces the fruit sold in abundance 

 in the markets of Constantinople, under the name of Hunndb 

 agdghi, and which has for a long time been imported into 

 the west of Europe, under the name of Jujube. It is minutely 

 and accurately described by Pomet, Lemery, and Tourne- 

 fort, and forms an article in the old Pharmacopoeias. I met 

 with it frequently in the Ionian islands, and the Turks of 

 Constantinople plant it before their coffee-houses, with other 

 trees, to enjoy the shade and fruit in their seasons. 



Rhamnus Paliurus. 

 This is the common thorn of the hedges in Asia, and forms 

 a fence of the most impassable kind. It is covered with 

 spines which stand in pairs, one hooked and the other straight, 

 very strong and sharp, and when the smallest part of a person's 

 dress becomes entangled, the whole is soon seized, and it is 

 impossible to be extricated without great laceration, as I have 

 often experienced. I am disposed to think that this is 

 the real Christ's Thorn, rather than that called the Spina 



* Fkrsoon Synopsis, vol. i. page 240. 

 f See Shaw's Travels, page 226, 



