The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-05-03
BIBLICAL PLANTS OF THE HOLY LAND,
p,o,yers of 1000 Years Ago Grow Now as They Did in
+be Time of Christ. The Hyssop of the Cruc1hxon
Still "Springeth from the Wall of Jerusalem.
BY JULIUS MULLER.

l+bopgh almost 1000 years have
since Christ trod the holy
@5 and deforestation, ceaseless
''D T+rotion and war have made much
o4 I+ desert, the traveller who knows
". botany as we'll as his Bible can
III Iii find, in the blossoming OF Easter
!,o most of the plants that grew by
4,o mathis of the Saviour.
w lraoo and shrub of the PARALLELS still
.aad on hill and valley, in field and
zosor+ Mint, anise and cummin,
,,ood Inv Him in His reproach to the
,o,5soes. are still favorite crops.
D., +ba Sea of Tiberias still grows
I,.+ Greatest of all herbs of st. Mat
.bow the wild mustard. Everywhere,
w. Gardens, in pastures and meadows,
Ia lilies of the field still bloom.
nj all those ancient plants the one
Ao+ has become most holy to Christ
ions is the hyssop. The traveller Of
today will find it everywhere. On
.,.,s and ruins, around ancient cities,
fs lone plumed stalk "springeth out
- the wall" 1t looks like the mar
ior;e' Its hairy stems and leaves grow
~ hollow stalk like cane, which
rises to height of three feet. 1t was
IN the end of a dried hyssOp stalk
that the Roman soldiers offered the
.oonca full of vinegar to the dying
Savior,
In the soft Syrian winds the hyssop
waves IS it did on the day of Passion.
Softwaved throughout the Holy Land
lone before Christ came to the earth;
far hack in King Solomon's day the
byssoD was used in religious rites,
the structure of its leaves making it
excellent for sprinkling fragrant per-
fumes through the temple.
The ThOrns of The Crown.
In the narrow valley of the brook
Kelron. east of Jerusalem, and on
the outer walls of the city itself, where
il faces the gorge, shine the small
white buds among the pale green oval
leaves of the nebek bush-the bush of
thorns that is held by the most promi-
nent OF Biblical scholars to be the
plant from which was woven the crown
of thorns. This bush, also known as
lotus and slider bush, has its supple
branches beset with long, sharp
thorns. After blossoming time it
yields a yellow, PLEASANT fruit of
gooseberry size.
Another thorn chambers over the
sides of the Hebron valley. 1t is the
i Da.lurus bush and there are many sup
poners Of the theory that the crown
was made from it, but the fact that the
neoek thorns grow on the walls of Je-
rusalem itself make it likely that this
was the little shrub whose twigs were
D used,
The tares still send their poisonous
shoots up among the wheat of the
Holy Land. Before the young wheat
forms its ears this weed and the wheat
b ook so much alike that everyone who
sees the tare growing. among the grain
Of BibleIand today can understand
why the Lord wanted the husnandmen
not to unroOt the tares before harvest
time for fear that they might tear up
the young grain with the weeds, if they
did It then. The tare is still pest,
giving living point to the Savior's
d parable of the man who sOwed tares
among his enemy's wheat.
a Reed Shaken by the Wind"
What went We out into the wider
ness to see A reed shaken by the
WIND, - Standing eight and nine feet
81 nigh, and bending their silken tassels
almost to the ground before every
Whispering breeze, the arrow reeds,
arQndo donax, form dense thickets
along the Jordan. This is the reed
winch was used from the most ancient
Z Vmes OF the Jews to the times of Christ
and atterward as material for making
pens, measuring-wands and even for
building.
among the trees that are cultivated
Rmost parts of Palestine and through
0Ot Syria wherever the climate per-
nils IS the evergreen fruit tree that
gives abundant shadow despite the
Tact that it does not grow very high.
1'loyes best to cling to sun-warmed
walls OF rock. Its fruits are pods
curved ike horns. They contain
'nhng dark seeds like beans embedded