The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 24

[246] Psal. 144. 13.

Nor need we wonder to find so frequent mention both of Garden and Field Plants; since _Syria_ was notable of old for this curiosity and variety, according to _Pliny_, _Syria hortis operosissima_; and since _Bellonius_ hath so lately observed of _Jerusalem_, that its hilly parts did so abound with Plants, that they might be compared unto Mount _Ida_ in _Crete_ or _Candia_: which is the most noted place for n.o.ble Simples yet known.

[Sidenote: _Trees and Herbs not expresly nam'd in Scripture._]

46. Though so many Plants have their express Names in Scripture, yet others are implied in some Texts which are not explicitly mention'd. In the Feast of _Tabernacles_ or _Booths_, the Law was this,[247] _Thou shalt take unto thee Boughs of goodly Trees, Branches of the Palm, and the Boughs of thick Trees, and Willows of the Brook_. Now though the Text descendeth not unto particulars of the _goodly Trees_, and _thick Trees_; yet _Maimonides_ will tell us that for a _goodly Tree_ they made use of the Citron Tree, which is fair and goodly to the eye, and well prospering in that Country: And that for the _thick Trees_ they used the Myrtle, which was no rare or infrequent Plant among them. And though it groweth but low in our Gardens, was not a little Tree in those parts; in which Plant also the Leaves grew thick, and almost covered the Stalk.

And _Curtius[248] Symphoria.n.u.s_ in his description of the _Exotick_ Myrtle, makes it, _Folio densissimo senis in ordinem versibus_. The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitterness or bitter Herbs, not particularly set down in Scripture: but the Jewish Writers declare, that they made use of Succory, and wild Lettuce, which Herbs while some conceive they could not get down, as being very bitter, rough and p.r.i.c.kly, they may consider that the time of the Pa.s.seover was in the Spring, when these Herbs are young and tender, and consequently less unpleasant: besides, according to the Jewish custom, these Herbs were dipped in the _Charoseth_ or Sawce made of Raisins stamped with Vinegar, and were also eaten with Bread; and they had four Cups of Wine allowed unto them; and it was sufficient to take but a pittance of Herbs, or the quant.i.ty of an Olive.

[247] Levit. 23. 40.

[248] Curtius _de Hortis._

[Sidenote: _Reeds in Scripture._]

47. Though the famous paper Reed of _aegypt_, be onely particularly named in Scripture; yet when Reeds are so often mention'd, without special name or distinction, we may conceive their differences may be comprehended, and that they were not all of one kind, or that the common Reed was onely implied. For mention is made in _Ezekiel_[249] of _a measuring Reed of six Cubits_: we find that they smote our Saviour on the Head with a Reed,[250] and put a Sponge with Vinegar on a Reed, which was long enough to reach to his mouth, while he was upon the Cross; And with such differences of Reeds, _Vallatory_, _Sagittary_, _Scriptory_, and others, they might be furnished in _Judaea_: For we find in the portion of _Ephraim_,[251] _Vallis arundineti_; and so set down in the Mapps of _Adricomius_, and in our Translation the River _Kana_, or Brook of _Canes_. And _Bellonius_ tells us that the River _Jordan_ affordeth plenty and variety of Reeds; out of some whereof the Arabs make Darts, and light Lances, and out of others, Arrows; and withall that there plentifully groweth the fine _Calamus, arundo Scriptoria_, or writing Reed, which they gather with the greatest care, as being of singular use and commodity at home and abroad; a hard Reed about the compa.s.s of a Goose or Swans Quill, whereof I have seen some polished and cut with a Webb; which is in common use for writing throughout the Turkish Dominions, they using not the Quills of Birds.

[249] Ezek. 40. 5.

[250] _S._ Matt 27. 30, 48.

[251] Josh. 16. 17.

And whereas the same Authour with other describers of these parts affirmeth, that the River _Jordan_ not far from _Jerico_, is but such a Stream as a youth may throw a Stone over it, or about eight fathoms broad, it doth not diminish the account and solemnity of the miraculous pa.s.sage of the Israelites under _Joshua_; For it must be considered, that they pa.s.sed it in the time of Harvest, when the River was high, and the Grounds about it under Water, according to that pertinent parenthesis, _As the Feet of the Priests, which carried the Ark, were dipped in the brim of the Water, (for Jordan[252] overfloweth all its Banks at the time of Harvest.)_ In this consideration it was well joined with the great River _Euphrates_, in that expression in _Ecclesiasticus_,[253] _G.o.d maketh the understanding to abound like Euphrates, and as Jordan in the time of Harvest_.

[252] Josh. 3. 13.

[253] Ecclus. 24. 26.

[Sidenote: _Zizania, in S._ Matt. 13. 24, 25, etc.]

48. _The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good Seed in his Field, but while men slept, his Enemy came and sowed Tares_ (or, as the Greek, _Zizania_) _among the Wheat._

Now, how to render _Zizania_, and to what species of Plants to confine it, there is no slender doubt; for the word is not mention'd in other parts of Scripture, nor in any ancient Greek Writer: it is not to be found in _Aristotle_, _Theophrastus_, or _Dioscorides_. Some Greek and Latin Fathers have made use of the same, as also _Suidas_ and _Phavorinus_; but probably they have all derived it from this Text.

And therefore this obscurity might easily occasion such variety in Translations and Expositions. For some retain the word _Zizania_, as the Vulgar, that of _Beza_, of _Junius_, and also the Italian and Spanish.

The Low Dutch renders it _Oncruidt_, the German _Oncraut_, or _Herba Mala_, the French _Turoye_ or _Lolium_, and the English _Tares_.

Besides, this being conceived to be a Syriack word, it may still add unto the uncertainty of the sense. For though this Gospel were first written in Hebrew, or Syriack, yet it is not unquestionable whether the true Original be any where extant: And that Syriack Copy which we now have, is conceived to be of far later time than S. _Matthew_.

Expositours and Annotatours are also various. _Hugo Grotius_ hath pa.s.sed the word _Zizania_ without a Note. _Diodati_, retaining the word _Zizania_, conceives that it was some peculiar Herb growing among the Corn of those Countries, and not known in our Fields. But _Emanuel de Sa_ interprets it, _Plantas semini noxias_, and so accordingly some others.

_Buxtorfius_, in his Rabbinical Lexicon, gives divers interpretations, sometimes for degenerated Corn, sometimes for the black Seeds in Wheat, but withall concludes, _an haec sit eadem vox aut species, c.u.m Zizania apud Evangelistam, quaerant alii_. But Lexicons and Dictionaries by _Zizania_ do almost generally understand _Lolium_, which we call _Darnel_, and commonly confine the signification to that Plant: Notwithstanding, since _Lolium_ had a known and received Name in Greek, some may be apt to doubt, why, if that Plant were particularly intended, the proper Greek word was not used in the Text. For _Theophrastus_[254]

named _Lolium_ ???a, and hath often mentioned that Plant; and in one place saith that Corn doth sometimes _Loliescere_ degenerate into _Darnel_. _Dioscorides_, who travelled over _Judaea_, gives it the same name, which is also to be found in _Galen_, _aetius_ and _aegineta_; and _Pliny_ hath sometimes latinized that word into _aera_.

[254] ??a???s?a?. Theophrast. _Hist. Plant. l. 8_.

Besides, _Lolium_ or Darnel shews it self in the Winter, growing up with the Wheat; and _Theophrastus_ observed that it was no Vernal Plant, but came up in the Winter; which will not well answer the expression of the Text, _And when the Blade came up, and brought forth Fruit_, or gave evidence of its Fruit, _the Zizania_ appeared. And if the Husbandry of the Ancients were agreeable unto ours, they would not have been so earnest to weed away the Darnel; for our Husbandmen do not commonly weed it in the Field, but separate the Seeds after Thras.h.i.+ng. And therefore _Galen_ delivereth, that in an unseasonable year, and great scarcity of Corn, when they neglected to separate the Darnel, the Bread proved generally unwholsome, and had evil effects on the Head.

Our old and later Translation render _Zizania_, _Tares_, which name our English Botanists give unto _Aracus_, _Cracca_, _Vicia sylvestris_, calling them Tares, and strangling Tares. And our Husbandmen by Tares understand some sorts of wild Fitches, which grow amongst Corn, and clasp upon it, according to the Latin Etymology, _Vicia a Vinciendo_.

Now in this uncertainty of the Original, Tares as well as some others, may make out the sense, and be also more agreeable unto the circ.u.mstances of the Parable. For they come up and appear what they are, when the Blade of the Corn is come up, and also the Stalk and Fruit discoverable. They have likewise little spreading Roots, which may intangle or rob the good Roots, and they have also tendrils and claspers, which lay hold of what grows near them, and so can hardly be weeded without endangering the neighbour Corn.

However, if by _Zizania_ we understand _Herbas segeti noxias_, or _vitia segetum_, as some Expositours have done, and take the word in a more general sense, comprehending several Weeds and Vegetables offensive unto Corn, according as the Greek word in the plural Number may imply, and as the learned _Laurenbergius_[255] hath expressed, _Runcare quod apud nostrates Weden dicitur, Zizanias inutiles est evellere_. If, I say, it be thus taken, we shall not need to be definitive, or confine unto one particular Plant, from a word which may comprehend divers: And this may also prove a safer sense, in such obscurity of the Original.

[255] De Horticultura.

And therefore since in this Parable the sower of the _Zizania_ is the Devil, and the _Zizania_ wicked persons; if any from this larger acception, will take in Thistles, Darnel, c.o.c.kle, wild strangling Fitches, Bindweed, _Tribulus_, Restharrow and other _Vitia Segetum_; he may, both from the natural and symbolical qualities of those Vegetables, have plenty of matter to ill.u.s.trate the variety of his mischiefs, and of the wicked of this world.

[Sidenote: _c.o.c.kle, in_ Job 31. 40.]

49. When 'tis said in _Job_, _Let Thistles grow up instead of Wheat, and c.o.c.kle instead of Barley_, the words are intelligible, the sense allowable and significant to this purpose: but whether the word _c.o.c.kle_ doth strictly conform unto the Original, some doubt may be made from the different Translations of it; For the Vulgar renders it _Spina_, _Tremelius Vitia Frugum_, and the _Geneva Turoye_ or Darnel. Besides, whether c.o.c.kle were common in the ancient Agriculture of those parts, or what word they used for it, is of great uncertainty. For the Elder Botanical Writers have made no mention thereof, and the Moderns have given it the Name of _Pseudomelanthium_, _Nigellastrum_, _Lychnoeides Segetum_, names not known unto Antiquity: And therefore our Translation hath warily set down [_noisome Weeds_] in the Margin.

OF GARLANDS and Coronary or Garden-plants.

TRACT II

SIR,

The use of flowry Crowns and Garlands is of no slender Antiquity, and higher than I conceive you apprehend it. For, besides the old Greeks and Romans, the aegyptians made use hereof; who, beside the bravery of their Garlands, had little Birds upon them to peck their Heads and Brows, and so to keep them sleeping at their Festival compotations. This practice also extended as far as _India_: for at the Feast with the Indian King, it is peculiarly observed by _Philostratus_ that their custom was to wear Garlands, and come crowned with them unto their Feast.

The Crowns and Garlands of the Ancients were either Gestatory, such as they wore about their Heads or Necks; Portatory, such as they carried at solemn Festivals; Pensile or Suspensory, such as they hanged about the Posts of their Houses in honour of their G.o.ds, as of _Jupiter Thyraeus_ or _Limeneus_; or else they were Depository, such as they laid upon the Graves and Monuments of the dead. And these were made up after all ways of Art, Compactile, Sutile, Plectile; for which Work there were stefa??p????? or expert Persons to contrive them after the best grace and property.

Though we yield not unto them in the beauty of flowry Garlands, yet some of those of Antiquity were larger than any we lately meet with: for we find in _Athenaeus_ that a Myrtle Crown of one and twenty foot in compa.s.s was solemnly carried about at the h.e.l.lotian Feast in _Corinth_, together with the Bones of _Europa_.

And Garlands were surely of frequent use among them; for we reade in _Galen_[256] that when _Hippocrates_ cured the great Plague of _Athens_ by Fires kindled in and about the City; the fuel thereof consisted much of their Garlands. And they must needs be very frequent and of common use, the ends thereof being many. For they were convivial, festival, sacrificial, nuptial, honorary, funebrial. We who propose unto our selves the pleasure of two Senses, and onely single out such as are of Beauty and good Odour, cannot strictly confine our selves unto imitation of them.

[256] _De Theriaca ad Pisonem._

For, in their convivial Garlands, they had respect unto Plants preventing drunkenness, or discussing the exhalations from Wine; wherein, beside Roses, taking in Ivy, Vervain, Melilote, _etc._ they made use of divers of small Beauty or good Odour. The solemn festival Garlands were made properly unto their G.o.ds, and accordingly contrived from Plants sacred unto such Deities; and their sacrificial ones were selected under such considerations. Their honorary Crowns triumphal, ovary, civical, obsidional, had little of Flowers in them: and their funebrial Garlands had little of beauty in them beside Roses, while they made them of Myrtle, Rosemary, Apium, _etc._ under symbolical intimations: but our florid and purely ornamental Garlands, delightfull unto sight and smell, nor framed according to mystical and symbolical considerations, are of more free election, and so may be made to excell those of the Ancients; we having _China_, _India_, and a new world to supply us, beside the great distinction of Flowers unknown unto Antiquity, and the varieties thereof arising from Art and Nature.

But, beside Vernal, aestival and Autumnal made of Flowers, the Ancients had also Hyemal Garlands; contenting themselves at first with such as were made of Horn died into several Colours, and shaped into the Figures of Flowers, and also of _aes Coronarium_ or _Clincquant_ or Bra.s.s thinly wrought out into Leaves commonly known among us. But the curiosity of some Emperours for such intents had Roses brought from _aegypt_ untill they had found the art to produce late Roses in _Rome_, and to make them grow in the Winter, as is delivered in that handsome Epigramme of _Martial_,

_At tu Romanae jussus jam cedere Brumae Mitte tuas messes, Accipe, Nile, Rosas._

Some American Nations, who do much excell in Garlands, content not themselves onely with Flowers, but make elegant Crowns of Feathers, whereof they have some of greater radiancy and l.u.s.tre than their Flowers: and since there is an Art to set into shapes, and curiously to work in choicest Feathers, there could nothing answer the Crowns made of the choicest Feathers of some _Tomineios_ and Sun Birds.

The Catalogue of Coronary Plants is not large in _Theophrastus_, _Pliny_, _Pollux_, or _Athenaeus_: but we may find a good enlargement in the Accounts of Modern Botanists; and additions may still be made by successive acquists of fair and specious Plants, not yet translated from foreign Regions or little known unto our Gardens: he that would be complete may take notice of these following,

_Flos Tigridis._ _Flos Lyncis._ _Pinea Indica Recchi, Talama Ouiedi._ _Herba Paradisea._ _Volubilis Mexica.n.u.s._ _Narcissus Indicus Serpentarius._ _Helichrysum Mexicanum._ _Xicama._ _Aquilegia novae Hispaniae Cac.o.xochitli Recchi._ _Aristochaea Mexicana._ _Camaratinga sive Caragunta quarta Pisonis._ _Maracuia Granadilla._ _Cambay sive Myrtus Americana._ _Flos Auriculae Flor de la Oreia._ _Floripendio novae Hispaniae._ _Rosa Indica._ _Zilium Indic.u.m._ _Fula Magori Garciae._ _Champe Garciae Champacca Bontii._ _Daullontas frutex odoratus seu Chamaemelum arborescens Bontii._ _Beidelsar Alpini._ _Sambuc._ _Amberboi Turcarum._ _Nuphar aegyptium._ _Lilionarcissus Indicus._ _Bamma aegyptiac.u.m._ _Hiucca Canadensis horti Farnesiani._ _Bupthalmum novae Hispaniae Alepocapath._ _Valeriana seu Chrysanthemum Americanum Acocotlis._ _Flos Corvinus Coronarius America.n.u.s._ _Capolin Cerasus dulcis Indicus Floribus racemosis._ _Asphodelus America.n.u.s._ _Syringa Lutea Americana._ _Bulbus unifolius._ _Moly latifolium Flore luteo._ _Conyza Americana purpurea._ _Salvia Cretica pomifera Bellonii._ _Lausus Serrata Odora._ _Ornithogalus Promontorii Bonae Spei._ _Fritallaria cra.s.sa Soldanica Promontorii Bonae Spei._ _Sigillum Solomonis Indic.u.m._ _Tulipa Promontorii Bonae Spei._ _Iris Uvaria._ _Nopolxoch sedum elegans novae Hispaniae._

More might be added unto this List; and I have onely taken the pains to give you a short Specimen of those many more which you may find in respective Authours, and which time and future industry may make no great strangers in _England_. The Inhabitants of _Nova Hispania_, and a great part of _America_, Mahometans, Indians, Chineses, are eminent promoters of these coronary and specious Plants: and the annual tribute of the King of _Bisnaguer_ in _India_, arising out of Odours and Flowers, amounts unto many thousands of Crowns.

Thus, in brief, of this matter. I am, _etc._