MENTIONED iN THE GOSPELS. 
437 
Jerusalem letter, we met with the mustard plant growing 
wild, as high as our horses' heads, still, being an annual, 
it did not deserve the appellation of a tree, whereas the other 
is really such, and birds might easily and actually do take 
shelter under its shadow " 
The plant which these gentlemen thought to be the 
mustard tree, alluded to by our Saviour, Mr Lambert and 
Mr Don found to be the Salvadora persica of Linnaeus, the 
Embelia grossularia of Retzius, and the Cissus arborea of 
Forskael, Edin. New Phil. Journ. No. iv. p. 307. 
The mustard plant, which they saw growing wild between 
Byson and Adjeloun, high as their horses' heads, Mr Don 
says, " was probably Sinapis nigra, which in Spain grows 
from ten to fifteen feet, as I am informed by my learned 
friend Don Mariano Lagasco." 
Captains Irby and Mangles declare, that " they were 
prevented from admitting this plant to be the mustard of 
the Gospels, because, being an annual, it did not deserve 
the appellation of a tree." To this remark we beg leave 
to add. Certainly it did not deserve the appellation of a 
tree, in our sense of that word ; but it might very well de- 
serve it in the sense in which tree is understood in the 
sacred writings. 
The uncommon size of an herb, in a hot country, is not 
to be wondered at. Herodotus, in the first book of his 
history, declares, " that in the country of Babylon, he 
could not mention the immense height to which the millet 
and sesame grew, though he had witnessed it himself, lest 
he should seem to violate probability." 
The mock orange of America also gives a satisfactory il- 
lustration of the account given of the mustard plant in the 
Gospels. If the seed be sown in a garden at New York, 
the plant growing from it rises to the height of ten or 
twelve feet, in the course of six or eight weeks ; while its 
