The Hawaiian gazette., 1878-06-19
WEDNESDAY. JUNE 10. 1878.
scripturaI Trees.

THE cARoB TREE Csratonia Siiqud).
The husks.' in scripture, which the swine
Ind eat" in the affecting and beautiful parable OF
The Prodigal Son, are generally, aud with much
proprlety considered 10 be those Of the trult oil
The Carob tree, or Locust tree (CerdtoRid Sih-
oual sometimes called St. Johns Bread from
an idea that It's fruit was the Locusts eaten oy
the forerunner of our Saviour but as Locusis
have from time immemorial been the food OF the |
people OF the East that word may, very larry, |
be taken in its literal sense The Carob torms |
middle sized tree not unfrequent in the gardens |
OF the curious 10 England /; it belongs to the
neutral family LegumnosR having large pinnated
leaves, with iucousplcuous flowers, rather large
pods, and seeds embedded in pulp. The husks
are still commonly employed for feeding cattle 10
Palestine, after the seeds are taken out. and the
Juice Is pressed from them. which is much es-
teemed and used Tor preserving fruits. Mixed
with lqunrce root, dry grapes, and other frult'
the No, De man make sberbet Of It, aud 1t IS
with theu an article Of daily consumption. The
pulp too 10 eaten after the seeds have been
thrown away it is dried in the sun, acquires
pleasant favor, and contains great deal OF sac
cbarine matter. The leaf and bark are used for
tanning skins.
THE oIIvE-(OLed).
The Olive (Oisd) attans to a large size in
Palestine and the country has been considered
emuently blessed for the abundance OF this tree.
and for the excellence of its OIL which the Israel
ties conveyed to the markets OF Tyre, Solomon
Is said to have ordered 10 the workmen that
king diram sent him. besides other provisions,
10000 baths of oil. But the oil here spoken Of
is supposed TO have not been expressed from the
cultivated olive. Schultz found near Jericho, 10
the bed of a brook that was dried up, several
wild Olive trees, whose fruit was as large again
as that of the cultivated kind and from these
the natives extracted an OIL which they used not
for food, bat as medicine.
Tue CEDAR OF LEBANoS-(CsdruS Decodord).
The Cedar must not be omitted in an enume-
ration of the interesting plants of the Holy Land
il is fir of the group of Larches. and hence
| called by some authors Piuus Cedrus. aud by
| others Lark Cedrus. 1t is remarkable for its
stately size. its wde-spreading an-like branches,
and its not deciduous leaves. in which latter par
ticular il differs from the other arches. 1t is a
native of several places in the LeSaut, and espe-
ciaIly of the famed Mount Lebanon. which has
| been celebrated from the most ancient times for
cedars. The temple of Jerusalem and the royal
palace there we're built oil this wood and in the
last structure, so great quantity of this tree
| was employed, that it was called the House oi
the Forest of Lebanon. Masts of ships were
|
| the ancient Jews, that the Psalmlst compares
the boughs of the vine brought out of Egypt
| to the cedars of God ('goodly cedars," in OUT
trauslatIon). Pocoke measured stem that wa:
twenty-fOur feet 10 circumference. Abundant as
were the cedars 10 Lebanon during the days o
SOloman, they are now greatly reduced, and con
fined to the steep decvity of the more elevated
parts of the mountain, in the neighborhood o
the Carmelite monastery of st. Sergius. Mayo
10 the summer Of 1913, calculated the number o
trees, of which this grove consists, at 800 or 90t
large and small. Among them were nine prln
cipa cedars, whose circumference at four fee
from the ground Was nearly twenty feet 81
that it is with some justice that Professor Mar
tyn has remarked that there are probably nos
mons cedars in Britain, than there are in a
Palestine. 1t is hardly necessary to remark, tba
the cedar wood, of which pencils made. i
not the produce OF this tree, but species of il
niper (JuHiperuS rirgiRiGia), called the re
cedar.
THE rEREBINTH TREE Pistdchid Tsre5;nthus
The Terebinth tree is often mentioned i
Scripture; this is the Pistacha Terebnthus
Lnnaus, if Celsius be correct in calling The Ga
Of our translation Terebinthus judacia end RI
ssumuller, to whom we are indebted for muc
valuable Information respecting the natural his
tory Of Scripture, informs US that the words L
lah, in our Bible rendered pax. are particular
applied to the Terebnth. Jacob buried th
idoIatrous images that his family brought frol
Mesopotamia under Terebnth tree. An ang
appeared to Gideon under Terebinth tree.
was IN 3 valley of Terebinth trees that Saul ell
camped with his host. and under one of the
. we're he and his sons buried. AbsalOm hun
upon Tereb:nth tree, and Isaiah threatens II
idolsters (ch. i. Y. 800. that they shall be as
TerebInth tree whose leaves fall off that
being an evergreen, when the tree Dies On a
count of the great age, TO which 1t lives, 1t
employed metaphorcally to indicate the pro
, porous and enduring state of the Jews when the
were to be restored. One of them. under whit
Deborah is said to have dwelt. according to Jost
plus, was shown near Hebron at the time OF S
Jerome. Towards the middle of the seventeen
century. between Jerusalem and Bethlehem stoC
an old tree, under which tradition relates tn
the Virgin Mary rested. when she went fro
Bethlehem TO Jerusalem, to present her son
the Temple; and this was equally yenerated
the Mahometans as by the Christians but
1645 it was accidentally destroyed by fire. II
wood of the Terebinth tree is white. hard al
Astounding in resin. The turpentine is obtan'
by making ineisions. which should be done q
nually, else the accumulated fluid swells, and
hslly bursts and destroys the tree. From the Z
gleet OF this practice, Terebinth trees. which Us
to be frequent 10 Judes, are now become of "a
. occurrence.