In the seventeenth century, it was used as a strewing herb in sick rooms and to cleanse lepers, as noted in biblical writings. The Palestine iris is delicate in color, a soft lemon and slight orchid-blue shade. The Greek word for iris means rainbow. I am the rose of Sharon, A the lily of the valleys. The voice of one saying, Cry.
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
This plant is the saltwort plant, which is a saline plant something like spinach and eaten by the poor in Palestine. Mandragora officinarum The mandrake belongs to the potato family and grows in abundance throughout Syria and all of southern Europe. The mandrake root is quite large. It is dark brown with a peculiar resemblance to the shape of a human body. This unusual shape accounts for superstition that has been associated with it from earliest times.