FLORA OF ADEN. 
209 
On the oil prepared from the ripe fruit and its uses, see Ibn el 
Beithar, vol. II, p. 127 — 128. 
The same author says that the pulp of the fruit is called 'kebest* 
(vol. Ill, 143) and according to Abu Hanifa, the name of the seed 
is ‘ hebed J (eod. 1. Ill, 387). 
Historical Note : — The Colocynth seems to be the plant which 
is mentioned under the name f pakknoth 3 in connection with an 
episode in the life of Eliseus. (IV, Reg. 4, 39). When Eliseus 
returned to Galgal, there was a famine in the land. One day he 
wanted to prepare a meal for his guests and for this purpose he 
sent a servant to gather some herbs. “ And one went out into the 
field to gather wild herbs. And he found something like a wild 
vine, and gathered of it wild gourds of the field, and filled his 
mantel, and coming back he shred them into the pot of pottage, 
for he knew not what it was. And they poured it out for their 
companions to eat. And when they had tasted of the pottage, they 
cried out, saying : Death is in the pot, O man of Gcd. And 
they could not eat thereof.” 
The opinion that the Colocynth was the plant in question is 
strengthened by Rabbinical writers who state that the f pakknoth 3 
contained seeds which yielded an oil. To this may be added the fact, 
that the Colocynth, according to Tristram, grows most abundantly 
in the barren sands near Gilgal, and all around the Dead Sea in 
the low flats, covering the ground with its tendrils. The same 
author points out, that it was easy for an inhabitant of the highlands 
of Palestine to mistake this unfamiliar vegetable for one of the 
harmless kinds ; and as it was a time of scarcity, he would be glad 
to appropriate any likely esculent. 1 * 
3. Corallocarpus Welw. 
Prostrate or climbing, scabrid or subtomentose herbs. Leaves 
lobed or palmate. Tendrils simple, or absent. 
Flowers minute, monoecious. Male flowers crowded at the end of a 
long peduncle. Calyx broadly campanulate, 5-lobed. Corolla 5-partite. 
Stamens 3, free, inserted on the calyx-tube ; anthers entire or bipartite, 
one 1-celled, two 2-celled ; connective produced or not, often bifid. 
Rudimentary ovary minute or absent. Female flowers sessile or 
shortly pedicelled, solitary or fascicled. Staminodes minute or absent. 
1 Cf. also: — Celsius. Hierobotanicon, vol. I, p. 397. 
Tristram, H. B. The natural history of the Bible, London, 1889, p. 452. 
Groser, W. H. The Trees and Plants mentioned in the Bible. London, 
1895, p. 146. 
Buxtorf. Lexicon chaldaicum, p. 891. 
K 2 
