Sycamore. 
(CURIOSITY.) 
T HIS tree is frequently mentioned in Scriptural story, and 
has, indeed, been made the emblem of curiosity from an 
incident related in the New Testament. Amongst the crowd 
which witnessed the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem 
was a publican named Zaccheus ; and he, in order to obtain a 
better view of the Messiah, climbed up into a sycamore which 
stood by the way. 
The Scriptural sycamore is a large tree resembling the mul¬ 
berry in its leaf and the fig in its fruit; hence it is presumed 
its name (from two Greek words) is derived : sycos, a fig-tree, 
and moros, a mulberry-tree. It is a wide-spreading tree— 
attains a considerable height, and exhibits a trunk of large 
dimensions. To the ancients it was known as “the wisest of 
trees,” because it buds late in the spring, and thus avoids the 
nipping frost. 
In former ages its fruit appears to have constituted an im¬ 
portant item of the diet of the Egyptians ; and, even nowa¬ 
days, travellers inform us that in some parts of Egypt it is a 
common article of food with the people, who are said to think 
themselves well off when they have a piece of bread, a couple 
of sycamore figs, and a pitcher filled with water from the Nile. 
It is good evidence in behalf of the value which these trees 
bore in the eyes of the Egyptians that the Psalmist, when 
recording the plagues wherewith the Lord visited that people, 
says, “ He destroyed their sycamore-trees with frost.” 
It is probable that these trees were carefully cultivated in 
Canaan from a very remote age. The prophet Amos is de¬ 
scribed as “ a gatherer of sycamore fruit,”—that is, he was a 
dresser of sycamore-trees. In David’s reign, it is stated that 
an officer was appointed to tend “ the olive-trees and the syca¬ 
more-trees that were in the low plains.” 
