264 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
confess that I should never be able to get up much enthusiasm over these, but 
with some growers they are wondrous favourites. The flowers appear to me to 
lack bulk, and form, and brilliancy, but perhaps I am deficient in taste. 
My eye has just caught a specimen of the extraordinary new Russian 
Violet, The Czar, from Mr. F. J. Graham, of Cranford, with foliage like a 
young plant of a Hollyhock, and large blue flowers, stout, and well coloured: 
and I had passed on to look over a large collection of Apples and Pears from 
Mr. Turner, preparatory to commencing the remaining half of the Hall, which 
was devoted to fruit—and very much of it very fine ; when a commotion among 
the visitors announced that the civic procession, consisting of the Lord and 
Lady Mayoress, the Sheriffs, and several of the Court of Aldermen, preceded 
by the outlandish-looking sword-bearer, and his equally strange-accoutred 
colleague, the mace-bearer, were approaching the Hall, to look at the contents 
of the Show. All hope of “taking notes” was now at an end, and taking a 
hasty glance at the remainder of the Exhibition, I left the stage to the new 
actors, who were to perform the inaugural ceremony. 
Quo. 
THE MUSTARD TREE OF SCRIPTURE, SALYADORA 
PERSICA. 
This interesting plant, the “ supposed ” Mustard Tree of Scripture, and 
to which a special interest attaches because of its association with the ministry 
of our Lord, is this autumn catalogued in the new plant list of a well known 
London nurseryman. The seed of the above plant is said by eastern travellers 
to be remarkably small, and yet produces a plant that waxes into a great tree, 
with numerous branches. It is also said that the “ seed possesses the same 
properties, and is used for the same purpose as mustard, and has a name 
Kharclal in Arabic, of which Sinapi is the true translation; and the plant 
moreover, grows on the very shores of the sea of Galilee, where our Lord 
addressed to the multitude the parable of the mustard seed. Schwarz gives it 
the Hebrew name Al char dal, and says it is grown in large quantities near 
Hebron, where 7 lbs., Bavarian weight, only fetch two pence. It grows there 
to the height 6 or 8 feet; but it appears from testimony, that in olden times it 
attained a very great height.” 
In “ Speke’s Travels ” it is described by Capt. Grant as only attaining the 
size of a bush on the Upper Nile, and it would appear from the testimony of 
modern travellers, that it is only seen as a mere bush. Dr. Hogg says, in his 
“ Vegetable Kingdom,” in reference to this plant, “ Salvadora persica is sup¬ 
posed by Dr. Hoyle to be the Mustard Tree of Scripture; but I have been told 
by the late Mr. Barker, who resided the greater part of his life in Syria, and 
also by Dr. Keith, who has travelled so much in that country, that there the 
common Mustard plant attains the dimensions of a small tree, and that they 
believe it is the plant referred to by our Saviour.” 
The Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who is no mean authority in the matter, enter¬ 
tains some considerable doubt as to the Salvadora persica being the plant 
alluded to in the parable, “ for the name of one plant was sometimes in course 
of time transferred to another ; thus the old Primrose was our Daisy, and the 
old Eglantine was certainly not our Sweetbriar.” Mr. Berkeley considers that 
the balance of evidence is nevertheless in favour of the Mustard of Scripture 
being the same as our own. The testimony of the Rev. Albert Barnes, the 
distinguished American commentator, is, on the other hand, that the Mustard 
tree of the parable “ was very different from that which was known among us; 
