THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 139 
Plane-tree. At two places in the Old Testament (Gen. 30 
-ch., 37; Ezek. 31 ch., 8), the Hebrew armon is in the Auth. Vers. 
translated chestnut tree. The chestnut however is not native to 
Palestine, and the Revised Vers. make it plane-tree (Platanus 
orientalis). In the first reference a rod of this tree is amongst 
those used by Jacob, and in the second it is amongst the trees 
mentioned in a symbolical sense. 
Fig-tree. (Wicus caricus). This important food fruit is 
frequently introduced in both old and new testaments. The 
-earliest reference is to the use of the leaves by Adam and Hve 
for clothing (Gen. 3 ch., 7). The promised land was deseribed 
-as “a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees’” (Deut. 
8 ch. 8). And again (Micah. 4 ch., 4; Isa. 36 ch., 16; Zech. 3 
-ch., 10), in prophesying the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom, 
sufficiently indicate the importance attached to this useful tree. 
Likewise 1 Kings. 4 ch., 25, “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, 
-every man under his vine and under his fig-tree.” Again it was_ 
under a fig-tree Jesus saw Nathaniel (John. 1 ch., 48, 50). 
The fruit was pressed and dried for preservation as food, 
-as is evidenced by 1 Sam. 25 ch., 18, where Abigail took amongst. 
other provisions for the journey to meet King David, “two hun- 
dred cakes of figs,’ and 1 Sam. 30 ch., 12, where David gave the 
‘starving Egyptian “piece of a cake of figs.” 
The great store naturally set on so valuable a tree is further 
sevidenced by the fact that to have it barren or destroyed was 
considered in the nature of a national calamity. Thus Joel 1 
-ch., 6, 7, describing judgment against the people for wrong do- 
ing, speaks of the “barked fig-tree,” and Habakkuk 3 ch., 17, 
on the same theme, says “the fig-tree shall not blossom.” 
The most esteemed figs were those which ripened about the 
‘time of the Passover, early in summer, when the winter was 
past. This is well brought out in Hos. 9 ch., 10, “the first-ripe 
in the fig-tree at her first time,” and in Song. Sol. 2 ch., 13, “The 
fig-tree putteth forth her green figs,” while the appearance of 
the fresh green leaves is a token of the coming summer (Matt. 
24 ch., 32). The incident of the barren fig-tree related in Mark. 
11 ch., 138, and Matt. 21 ch., 19, is made clear when we consider 
the following points. In Palestine the fig-tree puts forth its 
first and most delicate fruit about the time of the Passover, in 
late June or early July, before its leaves. And as it was at the 
time of the incident, in full leaf, although “the time of figs was 
not yet,” that is the fig harvest when the main crops was gather- 
ed, the fact that there was no fruit when it should have carried 
the early crop, and it being too early for it to have been 
stripped, shows that the tree was barren and merely a bearer of 
