plied to uses forbidden by their religion, are the reasons perhaps why there are not many tokens to be met with, except at Jerusalem and Hebron*, of the ancient vineyards. Whereas the general benefit arising from the olive tree, the longevity and hardiness of it have continued down to this time several thousands of them together, to mark out to us the possibility, as they are undoubtedly the traces, of greater plantations. Now, if to these productions we join several large plats of arable ground, that lie scattered all over the vallies and windings of the mountains

of

Besides the great quantity of grapes and raisins that are, one or other of them, brought daily to the markets of Jerusalem, and the neighbouring villages, Hebron alone sends every year to Egypt, three hundred camel-loads, (i. e. near two thousand quintals) of the Robb, which they call (1) Dibse; the same word that is rendered simply honey in the Scriptures; particularly Gen. xliii. 11. Carry down the man a present of the best things of the land, a little balm, and a little dipse. For honey, properly so called, could not be a rarity so great there as dipse must be, from the want of vineyards in Egypt. In Lev. ii. 11. honey seems to be of several sorts; Ye shall burn no leaven, nor any kind of honey in any offering. For besides the honey of grapes, of bees, and of the palm, or dates, the honey of the reed or sugar might be of great antiquity. Thus y, Cant. v. 1. which we render the honey-comb, is by some interpreters taken for a reed, or the μi xaxavor, or mel arundinis. Strabo mentions sugar as a succedaneum to the honey of bees : Είρηκε δε και περί καλαμων, ότι WO1YTI μEXI, μIÀIoor en vor. lib. xi. Dioscorid. lib. ii. cap. 104. Σακχαρος ειδος μέλιτος εν Ινδία πεπηγότος, και τη ευδαιμονι Αραδία ευρισ

κεμένον επί των καλαμων.

Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos.------. --Lucan. Hebron has the title of Hhaleel, i. e. the chosen or beloved, among the Arabs; where the Mag-gar el Mamra, cave of Mamre or Mackpelah, Gen. xxiii. 17. is still shewn, and is always lighted up with lamps, and held in extraordinary veneration by the Maho

metans..

of Judah and Benjamin, we shall find that the lot, (even of these tribes, which are supposed to have had the most barren part of the country), fell to them in a fair ground, and that theirs was a goodly heritage.

The mountainous parts therefore of the Holy Land, were so far from being inhospitable, unfruitful, or the refuse of the Land of Canaan, that, in the division of this country, the mountain of Hebron was granted to Caleb as a particular favour, Josh. xiv. 12. We read likewise, that in the time of Asa, this hill-country of Judah (2 Chron. xiv. 8.) mustered five hundred and eighty thousand men of valour; an argument beyond dispute that the land was able to maintain them. Even at present, notwithstanding. the want there has been for many ages of a proper culture and improvement, yet the plains and vallies, though as fruitful as ever, lie almost entirely neglected, whilst every little hill is crowded with inhabitants. If this part therefore of the Holy Land was made up only, as some object, of naked rocks and precipices, how comes it to pass, that it should be more frequented than the plains of Esdraelon, Ramah, Zabulon, or Acre, which are all of them very delightful, and fertile beyond imagination? It cannot be urged that the inhabitants live with more safety here than in the plain country, in as much as there are neither walls nor fortifications to secure their villages or encampments; there are likewise few or no places of difficult access; so that both of them lie equally

VOL. II.

T

equally exposed to the insults and outrages of an enemy. But the reason is plain and obvious, in as much as they find here sufficient conveniences for themselves, and much greater for their cattle. For they themselves have here bread to the full, whilst their cattle brouze upon richer herbage; and both of them are refreshed by springs of excellent water, too much wanted, especially in the summer season, not only in the plains of this, but of other countries in the same climate. This fertility of the Holy Land which I have been describing, is confirmed from authors of great repute, whose partiality cannot in the least be suspected in this account. Thus Tacitus, (1. v. c. 6.) calls it uber solum; and Justin, (Hist. 1. xxxvi. c. 3.) sed non minor loci ejus apricitatis quam ubertatis admiratio est.

I travelled in Syria and Phoenice in December and January, and therefore had not a proper season for botanical observations. However, the whole country looked verdant and cheerful; and the woods particularly, which are chiefly planted with the gall-bearing-oak, (gallæ Syriaca are taken notice of by Vegetius, De re Rustica, ii. 62.) were strewed all over with a variety of anemones, ranunculusses, colchicas, and mandrakes. Several pieces of ground near Tripoly were full of liquorice; and at the mouth of a famous grotto near Bellmont, there is an elegant species of the blue lily, the same with Morison's lilium Persicum flo

rens.

In the beginning of March, the plains, particularly betwixt Jaffa and Ramah, were every

where

where planted with a beautiful variety of fritillaries, tulips, and other plants of that and of different classes. But there are usually so many dangers and difficulties which attend a traveller through the Holy Land, that he is too much hastened to make many curious observations, or to collect the variety of plants, or the many other natural curiosities of that country.

The mountains of Quarantania afford a great quantity of yellow polium, and some varieties of thyme, sage, and rosemary. The brook likewise of Elisha, which flows from it, and waters the gardens of Jericho, together with its plantations of plum* and date trees, has its banks adorned with several species of brooklime, lysimachia, water-cress, betony, and other aquatic plants; all of them very nearly resembling those of our own island. And indeed the whole scene of vegetables, with the soil that supports them, has not those particular differences and varieties that might be expected in two such distant climates. Neither do I remember to have seen or heard of any plants but such as were natives of other places. For the balsam tree no longer subsists; and the musa †, which some authors have sup

posed

Of the fruit of this tree is made the oil of Zaccone. Vid. Maundrell's Journ. p. 86. edit. 2. The tree is thus described, Casp. Bauh. Plin. p. 444. Prunus Hierichontica folio angusto spinoso. Zaccon dicitur, quia in planitie Hierichontis non longe ab ædibus Zacchæi crescit. Cast.

+ Mouz, commonly called the Bananna, or Plantain tree.

‡ Vid. Ludolphi Hist. Æthiop. lib. i. cap. 9. & Comment. p. 139, &c.

*

posed to be the dudaim, or mandrakes, as we interpret it, is equally wanting; neither could it, I presume, from the very nature and quality of it, ever grow wild and uncultivated, as the dudaim must certainly have done. Others † again, as the dudaim (from 77') are supposed to denote something amiable or delightful, have taken them for cherries, and that the doudai (717) consequently, which we interpret baskets, Jer. xxiv. 1. were made of the cherry tree. But the same, with equal reason, might have been asserted of the plum, or of the apricot, or of the peach, or of the orange or lemon, which might have been as rare, and no less delightful than the cherry; though it is more probable, that none of these fruits were known in Judea in those early times, not having been propagated so far to the westward, till many ages afterwards. However, what the Christians of Jerusalem take at present for dudaim, are the pods of the jelathon, a leguminous plant peculiar to the corn fields, which, by the many descriptions I had of it, (for it was too early, when I was there, to see it), it should be a species of the winged pea; probably the hierazune, or the lotus tetragonolobus. In no small conformity likewise with this account, the melilotus odorata violacea of Morison, the lotus hor tensis odorata of C. B. and the lotus sativa, odo

rata,

*And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah, Gen.

XXX. 14.

+ Vid. Mat. Hilleri Hierophyticon, in cap. De dudaim.