PLANTS OF THE BIBLE. 



107 



of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees and pomegranates. It reachea 

 a considerable size, and affords grateful shade. The figs when 

 dried furnish an article of food. The green or unripe figs Avere 

 called in the Aramaic " pagga," a word found in Bethphage, 

 which means literally the house of unripe figs. 



There is another kind of Fig tree in Scripture which bears a 

 different name, the Sycomore tree. A very old tree at Jericho 

 is known as the Sycomore of Zaccheus ; it is questionable 

 whether it is the tree into which Zaccheus climbed. The leaf 

 resembles that of a Mulberry. There are many species of figs. 

 The common Fig is one, and the Sycomore is another. ThQ 

 Sycomore has a short trunk and long-spreading branches, and it 

 would be a very suitable tree for a little man to climb into if he 

 wanted to see what was passing. Before we leave the Sycomore 

 I might tell you that the fruit is not nearly so useful as the 

 fruit of the ordinary Fig tree. It is bitter, but if cut as it is 

 ripening, to some extent this is remedied ; the Prophet Amos 

 described himself as "a gatherer of figs" — that is, he cut the 

 unripe fruit, which, as the result of that operation, was not so 

 bitter as if it were allowed to ripen naturally. The wood of 

 the Sycomore tree is light and very durable, and was used by 

 the Egyptians to make their mummy cases. 



There is another tree, which is sometimes confused with the 

 Sycomore, and that is the Sycamine tree, which is spoken of 

 in the passage where Christ says, "If ye had faith as a grain of 

 mustard seed," etc. The tree referred to there is the Black Mul- 

 berry, which is grown somewhat extensively in Palestine. In 

 connection with Mulberry there is another confusion. The 

 children of Israel were given a sign, and were told to fall upon the 

 enemy when they heard the sound of a going in the tops of the 

 Mulberries, but the word does not mean Mulberries, but refers 

 to a species of Poplar, which is quite common along the 

 sides of streams, something like our Aspen, the characteristic 

 of which, as you know, is the very light way in which the leaves 

 are attached, so that they shake and rustle ; and the sound of 

 the going was the rustling of these Poplars. So you have a 

 rational explanation when you get the right term. 



The Olive is one of the most characteristic trees of Palestine. 

 As I mentioned when we were discussing the general physical 

 geography of the country, the Olive largely replaced the forests 

 in the original country between the maritime coast plains and the 

 Kiver Jordan; but the Olive needs attention, and since the fal] 



