The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3

Geometrical and Architectonical Artists look narrowly upon the description of the Ark, the fabrick of the Temple, and the holy City in the Apocalypse.

But the Botanical Artist meets every where with Vegetables, and from the Figg Leaf in Genesis to the Star Wormwood in the Apocalypse, are variously interspersed expressions from Plants, elegantly advantaging the significancy of the Text: Whereof many being delivered in a Language proper unto Judæa and neighbour Countries are imperfectly apprehended by the common Reader, and now doubtfully made out, even by the Jewish Expositour.

And even in those which are confessedly known, the elegancy is often lost in the apprehension of the Reader, unacquainted with such Vegetables, or but nakedly knowing their natures: whereof holding a pertinent apprehension, you cannot pass over such expressions without some doubt or want of satisfaction in your judgment. Hereof we shall onely hint or discourse some few which I could not but take notice of in the reading of holy Scripture.

Many Plants are mention’d in Scripture which are not distinctly known in our Countries, or under such Names in the Original, as they are fain to be rendred by analogy, or by the name of Vegetables of good affinity unto them, and so maintain the textual sense, though in some variation from identity.

The Observations. Kikaion.

1. The Plant which afforded a shade unto Jonah,189 mention’d by the name of Kikaion, and still retained at least marginally in some Translations, to avoid obscurity Jerome rendred Hedera or Ivy; which notwithstanding (except in its scandent nature) agreed not fully with the other, that is, to grow up in a night, or be consumed with a Worm; Ivy being of no swift growth, little subject unto Worms, and a scarce Plant about Babylon.

Hyssope.

2. That Hyssope is taken for that Plant which cleansed the Leper, being a well scented, and very abstersive Simple, may well be admitted; so we be not too confident, that it is strictly the same with our common Hyssope: The Hyssope of those parts differing from that of ours; as Bellonius hath observed in the Hyssope which grows in Judæa, and the Hyssope of the Wall mention’d in the Works of Solomon, no kind of our Hyssope; and may tolerably be taken for some kind of minor Capillary, which best makes out the Antithesis with the Cedar. Nor when we meet with Libanotis, is it to be conceived our common Rosemary, which is rather the first kind thereof among several others, used by the Ancients.

Hemlock. Hosea 10. 4. Amos 6. 2.

3. That it must be taken for Hemlock, which is twice so rendred in our Translation, will hardly be made out, otherwise than in the intended sense, and implying some Plant, wherein bitterness or a poisonous quality is considerable.

Paliurus.

4. What Tremelius rendreth Spina, and the Vulgar Translation Paliurus, and others make some kind of Rhamnus, is allowable in the sense; and we contend not about the species, since they are known Thorns in those Countries, and in our Fields or Gardens among us: and so common in Judæa, that men conclude the thorny Crown of our Saviour was made either of Paliurus or Rhamnus.

Rubus.

5. Whether the Bush which burnt and consumed not, were properly a Rubus or Bramble, was somewhat doubtfull from the Original and some Translations, had not the Evangelist, and S. Paul express’d the same by the Greek word Bάtos, which from the description of Dioscorides, Herbarists accept for Rubus; although the same word Bάtos expresseth not onely the Rubus or kinds of Bramble, but other Thorn-bushes, and the Hipp-briar is also named Κυνοσβάτος, or the Dog-briar or Bramble.

Myrica. Cant. 1. 14.

6. That Myrica is rendred, Heath, sounds instructively enough to our ears, who behold that Plant so common in barren Plains among us: But you cannot but take notice that Erica, or our Heath is not the same Plant with Myrica or Tammarice, described by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and which Bellonius declareth to grow so plentifully in the Desarts of Judæa and Arabia.

Cypress. Cant. 1. 14.

7. That the βότρυς τῆς Κύπρου, botrus Cypri, or Clusters of Cypress, should have any reference to the Cypress Tree, according to the original Copher, or Clusters of the noble Vine of Cyprus, which might be planted into Judæa, may seem to others allowable in some latitude. But there seeming some noble Odour to be implied in this place, you may probably conceive that the expression drives at the Κύπρος of Dioscorides, some oriental kind of Ligustrum or Alcharma, which Dioscorides and Pliny mention under the name of Κύπρος and Cyprus, and to grow about Ægypt and Ascalon, producing a sweet and odorate bush of Flowers, and out of which was made the famous Oleum Cyprinum.

But why it should be rendred Camphyre your judgment cannot but doubt, who know that our Camphyre was unknown unto the Ancients, and no ingredient into any composition of great Antiquity: that learned men long conceived it a bituminous and fossile Body, and our latest experience discovereth it to be the resinous substance of a Tree, in Borneo and China; and that the Camphyre that we use is a neat preparation of the same.

Shittah Tree, etc. Isa. 41. 19.

8. When ’tis said in Isaiah 41. I will plant in the wilderness the Cedar, the Shittah Tree, and the Myrtle and the Oil Tree, I will set in the Desart, the Firre Tree, and the Pine, and the Box Tree: Though some doubt may be made of the Shittah Tree, yet all these Trees here mentioned being such as are ever green, you will more emphatically apprehend the mercifull meaning of God in this mention of no fading, but always verdant Trees in dry and desart places.

Grapes of Eshcol. Num. 13. 23.

9. And they cut down a Branch with one cluster of Grapes, and they bare it between two upon a Staff, and they brought Pomegranates and Figgs. This cluster of Grapes brought upon a Staff by the Spies, was an incredible sight, in Philo Judæus,190 seem’d notable in the eyes of the Israelites, but more wonderfull in our own, who look onely upon Northern Vines. But herein you are like to consider, that the Cluster was thus carefully carried to represent it entire, without bruising or breaking; that this was not one Bunch but an extraordinary Cluster, made up of many depending upon one gross stalk. And however, might be parallel’d with the Eastern Clusters of Margiana and Caramania, if we allow but half the expressions of Pliny and Strabo, whereof one would lade a Curry or small Cart; and may be made out by the clusters of the Grapes of Rhodes presented unto Duke Radzivil,191 each containing three parts of an Ell in compass, and the Grapes as big as Prunes.

Ingred. of holy Perfume. Stacte, etc. Exod. 30.34, 35.

10. Some things may be doubted in the species of the holy Ointment and Perfume. With Amber, Musk and Civet we meet not in the Scripture, nor any Odours from Animals; except we take the Onycha of that Perfume for the Covercle of a Shell-fish called Unguis Odoratus, or Blatta Byzantina, which Dioscorides affirmeth to be taken from a Shell-fish of the Indian Lakes, which feeding upon the Aromatical Plants is gathered when the Lakes are drie. But whether that which we now call Blatta Byzantina, or Unguis Odoratus, be the same with that odorate one of Antiquity, great doubt may be made; since Dioscorides saith it smelled like Castoreum, and that which we now have is of an ungratefull odour.

No little doubt may be also made of Galbanum prescribed in the same Perfume, if we take it for Galbanum which is of common use among us, approaching the evil scent of Assa Fœtida; and not rather for Galbanum of good odour, as the adjoining words declare, and the original Chelbena will bear; which implies a fat or resinous substance, that which is commonly known among us being properly a gummous body and dissoluble also in Water.

The holy Ointment of Stacte or pure Myrrh, distilling from the Plant without expression or firing, of Cinnamon, Cassia and Calamus, containeth less questionable species, if the Cinnamon of the Ancients were the same with ours, or managed after the same manner. For thereof Dioscorides made his noble Unguent. And Cinnamon was so highly valued by Princes, that Cleopatra carried it unto her Sepulchre with her Jewels; which was also kept in wooden Boxes among the rarities of Kings: and was of such a lasting nature, that at his composing of Treacle for the Emperor Severus, Galen made use of some which had been laid up by Adrianus.

Husks eaten by the Prodigal. Luke 15. 16.

11. That the Prodigal Son desired to eat of Husks given unto Swine, will hardly pass in your apprehension for the Husks of Pease, Beans, or such edulious Pulses; as well understanding that the textual word Κεράτιον or Ceration, properly intendeth the Fruit of the Siliqua Tree so common in Syria, and fed upon by Men and Beasts; called also by some the Fruit of the Locust Tree, and Panis Sancti Johannis, as conceiving it to have been part of the Diet of the Baptist in the Desart. The Tree and Fruit is not onely common in Syria and the Eastern parts, but also well known in Apuglia, and the Kingdom of Naples, growing along the Via Appia, from Fundi unto Mola; the hard Cods or Husks making a rattling noise in windy weather, by beating against one another: called by the Italians Carobe or Carobole, and by the French Carouges. With the sweet Pulp hereof some conceive that the Indians preserve Ginger, Mirabolans and Nutmegs. Of the same (as Pliny delivers) the Ancients made one kind of Wine, strongly expressing the Juice thereof; and so they might after give the expressed and less usefull part of the Cods, and remaining Pulp unto their Swine: which being no gustless or unsatisfying Offal, might be well desired by the Prodigal in his hunger.

Cucumbers etc. of Ægypt.

12. No marvel it is that the Israelites having lived long in a well watred Country, and been acquainted with the noble Water of Nilus, should complain for Water in the dry and barren Wilderness. More remarkable it seems that they should extoll and linger after the Cucumbers and Leeks, Onions and Garlick in Ægypt: wherein notwithstanding lies a pertinent expression of the Diet of that Country in ancient times, even as high as the building of the Pyramids, when Herodotus delivereth, that so many Talents were spent in Onions and Garlick, for the Food of Labourers and Artificers; and is also answerable unto their present plentifull Diet in Cucumbers, and the great varieties thereof, as testified by Prosper Alpinus, who spent many years in Ægypt.

Forbidden Fruit. Gen. 2. 17. etc.

13. What Fruit that was which our first Parents tasted in Paradise, from the disputes of learned men seems yet indeterminable. More clear it is that they cover’d their nakedness or secret parts with Figg Leaves; which when I reade, I cannot but call to mind the several considerations which Antiquity had of the Figg Tree, in reference unto those parts, particularly how Figg Leaves by sundry Authours are described to have some resemblance unto the Genitals, and so were aptly formed for such contection of those parts; how also in that famous Statua of Praxiteles, concerning Alexander and Bucephalus, the Secret Parts are veil’d with Figg Leaves; how this Tree was sacred unto Priapus, and how the Diseases of the Secret Parts have derived their Name from Figgs.

Balsam. Oil. Luke 10. 34.

14. That the good Samaritan coming from Jericho used any of the Judean Balsam upon the wounded Traveller, is not to be made out, and we are unwilling to disparage his charitable Surgery in pouring Oil into a green Wound; and therefore when ’tis said he used Oil and Wine, may rather conceive that he made an Oinelæum or medicine of Oil and Wine beaten up and mixed together, which was no improper Medicine, and is an Art now lately studied by some so to incorporate Wine and Oil that they may lastingly hold together, which some pretend to have, and call it Oleum Samaritanum, or Samaritans Oil.

Pulse of Daniel. Dan. 1. 12.

15. When Daniel would not pollute himself with the Diet of the Babylonians, he probably declined Pagan commensation, or to eat of Meats forbidden to the Jews, though common at their Tables, or so much as to taste of their Gentile Immolations, and Sacrifices abominable unto his Palate.

But when ’tis said that he made choice of the Diet of Pulse and Water, whether he strictly confined unto a leguminous Food, according to the Vulgar Translation, some doubt may be raised, from the original word Zeragnim, which signifies Seminalia, and is so set down in the Margin of Arias Montanus; and the Greek word Spermata, generally expressing Seeds, may signifie any edulious or cerealious Grains besides ὄσπρια or leguminous Seeds.

Yet if he strictly made choice of a leguminous Food, and Water instead of his portion from the King’s Table, he handsomely declined the Diet which might have been put upon him, and particularly that which was called the Potibasis of the King, which as Athenæus informeth implied the Bread of the King, made of Barley, and Wheat, and the Wine of Cyprus, which he drank in an oval Cup. And therefore distinctly from that he chose plain Fare of Water, and the gross Diet of Pulse, and that perhaps not made into Bread, but parched, and tempered with Water.

Now that herein (beside the special benediction of God) he made choice of no improper Diet to keep himself fair and plump and so to excuse the Eunuch his Keeper, Physicians will not deny, who acknowledge a very nutritive and impinguating faculty in Pulses, in leguminous Food, and in several sorts of Grains and Corns, is not like to be doubted by such who consider that this was probably a great part of the Food of our Forefathers before the Floud, the Diet also of Jacob: and that the Romans (called therefore Pultifagi) fed much on Pulse for six hundred years; that they had no Bakers for that time: and their Pistours were such as, before the use of Mills, beat out and cleansed their Corn. As also that the Athletick Diet was of Pulse, Alphiton, Maza, Barley and Water; whereby they were advantaged sometimes to an exquisite state of health, and such as was not without danger. And therefore though Daniel were no Eunuch, and of a more fatning and thriving temper, as some have phancied, yet was he by this kind of Diet, sufficiently maintained in a fair and carnous state of Body, and accordingly his Picture not improperly drawn, that is, not meagre and lean, like Jeremy’s, but plump and fair, answerable to the most authentick draught of the Vatican, and the late German Luther’s Bible.

The Cynicks in Athenæus make iterated Courses of Lentils, and prefer that Diet before the Luxury of Seleucus. The present Ægyptians, who are observed by Alpinus to be the fattest Nation, and Men to have breasts like Women, owe much, as he conceiveth, unto the Water of Nile, and their Diet of Rice, Pease, Lentils and white Cicers. The Pulse-eating Cynicks and Stoicks, are all very long livers in Laertius. And Daniel must not be accounted of few years, who, being carried away Captive in the Reign of Joachim, by King Nebuchadnezzar, lived, by Scripture account, unto the first year of Cyrus.

Jacob’s Rods. Gen. 30. 31.

16. And Jacob took Rods of green Poplar, and of the Hazel and the Chesnut Tree, and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the Rods, etc. Men multiply the Philosophy of Jacob, who, beside the benediction of God, and the powerfull effects of imagination, raised in the Goats and Sheep from pilled and party-coloured objects, conceive that he chose out these particular Plants above any other, because he understood they had a particular virtue unto the intended effects, according unto the conception of Georgius Venetus.192

Whereto you will hardly assent, at least till you be better satisfied and assured concerning the true species of the Plants intended in the Text, or find a clearer consent and uniformity in the Translation: For what we render Poplar, Hazel and Chesnut, the Greek translateth Virgam styracinam, nucinam, plataninam, which some also render a Pomegranate: and so observing this variety of interpretations concerning common and known Plants among us, you may more reasonably doubt, with what propriety or assurance others less known be sometimes rendred unto us.

Lilies of the Field. Matt. 6. 28.

17. Whether in the Sermon of the Mount, the Lilies of the Field did point at the proper Lilies, or whether those Flowers grew wild in the place where our Saviour preached, some doubt may be made: because Κρίνον the word in that place is accounted of the same signification with Λείριον, and that in Homer is taken for all manner of specious Flowers: so received by Eustachius, Hesychius, and the Scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius, Καθόλου τὰ ἄνθη Λείρια λέγεται. And Κρίνον is also received in the same latitude, not signifying onely Lilies, but applied unto Daffodils, Hyacinths, Iris’s, and the Flowers of Colocynthis.

Under the like latitude of acception, are many expressions in the Canticles to be received. And when it is said he feedeth among the Lilies, therein may be also implied other specious Flowers, not excluding the proper Lilies. But in that expression, the Lilies drop forth Myrrhe, neither proper Lilies nor proper Myrrhe can be apprehended, the one not proceeding from the other, but may be received in a Metaphorical sense: and in some latitude may be also made out from the roscid and honey drops observable in the Flowers of Martagon, and inverted flowred Lilies, and, ’tis like, is the standing sweet Dew on the white eyes of the Crown Imperial, now common among us.

And the proper Lily may be intended in that expression of 1 Kings 7. that the brazen Sea was of the thickness of a hand breadth, and the brim like a Lily. For the figure of that Flower being round at the bottom, and somewhat repandous, or inverted at the top, doth handsomely illustrate the comparison.

But that the Lily of the Valley, mention’d in the Canticles, Cant. 2. I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys, is that Vegetable which passeth under the same name with us, that is Lilium convallium, or the May Lily, you will more hardly believe, who know with what insatisfaction the most learned Botanists reduce that Plant unto any described by the Ancients; that Anguillara will have it to be the Oenanthe of Athenæus, Cordus the Pothos of Theophrastus; and Lobelius that the Greeks had not described it; who find not six Leaves in the Flower agreeably to all Lilies, but onely six small divisions in the Flower, who find it also to have a single, and no bulbous Root, nor Leaves shooting about the bottom, nor the Stalk round, but angular. And that the learned Bauhinus hath not placed it in the Classis of Lilies, but nervifolious Plants.

Fitches, Cummin, &c. in Isa. 28. 25

18. Doth he not cast abroad the Fitches, and scatter the Cummin Seed, and cast in the principal Wheat, and the appointed Barley, and the Rye in their place: Herein though the sense may hold under the names assigned, yet is it not so easie to determine the particular Seeds and Grains, where the obscure original causeth such differing Translations. For in the Vulgar we meet with Milium and Gith, which our Translation declineth, placing Fitches for Gith, and Rye for Milium or Millet, which notwithstanding is retained by the Dutch.

That it might be Melanthium, Nigella, or Gith, may be allowably apprehended, from the frequent use of the Seed thereof among the Jews and other Nations, as also from the Translation of Tremellius; and the Original implying a black Seed, which is less than Cummin, as, out of Aben Ezra, Buxtorfius hath expounded it.

But whereas Milium or Κέγχρος of the Septuagint is by ours rendred Rye, there is little similitude or affinity between those Grains; For Milium is more agreeable unto Spelta or Espaut, as the Dutch and others still render it.

That we meet so often with Cummin Seed in many parts of Scripture in reference unto Judæa, a Seed so abominable at present unto our Palates and Nostrils, will not seem strange unto any who consider the frequent use thereof among the Ancients, not onely in medical but dietetical use and practice: For their Dishes were filled therewith, and the noblest festival preparations in Apicius were not without it: And even in the Polenta, and parched Corn, the old Diet of the Romans, (as Pliny recordeth) unto every Measure they mixed a small proportion of Lin-seed and Cummin-seed.

And so Cummin is justly set down among things of vulgar and common use, when it is said in Matthew 23. v. 23. You pay Tithe of Mint, Annise and Cummin: but how to make out the translation of Annise we are still to seek, there being no word in that Text which properly signifieth Annise: the Original being Ἄνηθον, which the Latins call Anethum, and is properly englished Dill.

That among many expressions, allusions and illustrations made in Scripture from Corns, there is no mention made of Oats, so usefull a Grain among us, will not seem very strange unto you, till you can clearly discover that it was a Grain of ordinary use in those parts; who may also find that Theophrastus, who is large about other Grains, delivers very little of it. That Dioscorides is also very short therein. And Galen delivers that it was of some use in Asia minor, especially in Mysia, and that rather for Beasts than Men: And Pliny affirmeth that the Pulticula thereof was most in use among the Germans. Yet that the Jews were not without all use of this Grain seems confirmable from the Rabbinical account, who reckon five Grains liable unto their Offerings, whereof the Cake presented might be made; that is, Wheat, Oats, Rye, and two sorts of Barley.

Ears of Corn. Matt. 12. 1.

19. Why the Disciples being hungry pluck’d the Ears of Corn, it seems strange to us, who observe that men half starved betake not themselves to such supply; except we consider the ancient Diet of Alphiton and Polenta, the Meal of dried and parched Corn, or that which was Ὠμήλυσις, or Meal of crude and unparched Corn, wherewith they being well acquainted, might hope for some satisfaction from the Corn yet in the Husk; that is, from the nourishing pulp or mealy part within it.

Stubble of Ægypt Exod. 5.7, etc.

20. The inhumane oppression of the Ægyptian Task-masters, who, not content with the common tale of Brick, took also from the Children of Israel their allowance of Straw, and forced them to gather Stubble where they could find it, will be more nearly apprehended, if we consider how hard it was to acquire any quantity of Stubble in Ægypt, where the Stalk of Corn was so short, that to acquire an ordinary measure, it required more than ordinary labour; as is discoverable from that account, which Pliny193 hath happily left unto us. In the Corn gather’d in Ægypt the Straw is never a Cubit long: because the Seed lieth very shallow, and hath no other nourishment than from the Mudd and Slime left by the River; For under it is nothing but Sand and Gravel.