440 
ON THE MUSTARD PLANT 
planted in his field or garden, a spot dedicated to labour, 
in order to be improved for the sake of the produce. 
The following is the other question which we have to 
ask. Does it finish its g^rowth in one or more seasons ? A 
man seldom plants any vegetable in his field or garden, ex- 
cept that which brings a return within the year ; and if the 
Phytolacca dodecandra take many years to finish its growth, 
it cannot be the mustard of the Gospels. 
It is to be regretted, that Mr Frost has neglected to au- 
thenticate the materials on which he grounds his reasonings. 
Without this authentication, the conclusions which he draws 
from his premises may be perfectly just, and yet these pre- 
mises a mere bundle of sand. 
" It would seem," says Mr Don, Edin. New Phil. Journ. 
p. 308, No. iv. that some common agricultural (or horti- 
cultural, Mr Don might have added) herb, of large growth, 
had been intended by our Saviour ; but whether the plant 
belongs to the same family with Sinapis of Linnoeus, and 
for what purpose it was cultivated, are questions rendered 
quite problematical at this distant date.^' 
After using these words, Mr Don goes on to observe ; 
" we are pretty certain, however, that it cannot be a Phy- 
tolacca, for it does not appear that any real species of that 
genus has been observed in Palestine." 
Without relying on any authority, if the phytolacca of 
Mr Frost was not a plant familiar to every one, such as 
that which grows in a field or garden ; if it did not grow 
from a small seed to a large size, in two at least, if not one 
year, it could not have been mentioned in a popular dis- 
course, as a fit image to represent the rapid progress and 
wide spread of Christianity, which, when Christ delivered 
the parable of the mustard seed, was despised by most, and 
embraced by few ; but, while it was reared upon Judaism, it 
was, in the course of four centuries, to supersede heathen- 
