(חרוב خروب), of which the pods are edible. The sycamore fig (Baba Bathra, ii, 9; Trumoth, xi, 4) is still to be found in the plains, but the apple (Trumoth, xi, 4) is less common. The mulberry, pomegranate, date palm, peach, quince, and citron occur among fruit trees (Maaseroth, i, 2) with the walnut, almond, and Sorba (עזורין) which appears, according to the commentators, to be the Arabic Z'arûr (زعرور), a kind of hawthorn, of which I have eaten the haws on Carmel. The chestnut is not a common tree now (קטף, Shebiith, vii, 6) though planted on Lebanon, but the oak and terebinth are plentiful (Shebiith, vii, 5). Willows are noticed at Kolonia below Jerusalem (Succah, iii, 3; iv, 5) and cedar wood, with ash, cypress, and fig wood for burning (Yoma, iii, 8). The altar fire was fed with fig-tree wood, nut, and wood of the "oil tree," not with olive wood or vines (Tamid, ii, 3). The lulab bunch consisted of palm, myrtle, and willow, and a citron was carried with it (Succah, iii, 4). The palm branches were laid on the roof of the Temple Court, or carried into the synagogue (Succah, iii, 12, 13): the willows were put in gold vases (Succah, iv, 6); and the children at this same feast of Tabernacles strewed palm branches and ate their citrons (Succah, iii, 7).
Another tree (אשכרוע) is sometimes rendered "elm," but appears to have been a kind of pine or cedar, of which pure vessels were made (Kelim, xii, 8). There is a species of fir which grows wild in the Gilead woods (Pinus Carica), but the Aleppo pine (Pinus Halepensis) of the Lebanon now bears a foreign name, viz., sinobar (صنوبر), which is apparently the זנובילא (Buxtorff, 679), Κιννάβαρις, otherwise צנובר and Σιγγεβερις (T. B. Pesakhim, 4:2b), and though believed in the fourth and fifth centuries to have been the tree of which Solomon built the temple, it is not impossibly a stranger to Palestine, though now plentiful in Lebanon.
By the "oil tree" may perhaps be understood the oleaster or wild olive (עץ שמן, Tamid, ii, 3), though Bartenora says "pine" or "balsam."[1] It was one of the woods for the altar fire. Finally, the og (אוג) is believed to have been the sumach (Kelim, xxvi, 3). It had a red fruit, fit for eating and for dyeing skins.
Among shrubs the most famous is the hyssop. There can be little doubt that the origany or wild marjoram is the plant intended, as has always been traditionally supposed. The caper is quite out of the question, nor does its Arab name Asâf bear any relation to the Hebrew word for hyssop (אזוב, ezob), which the Greeks seem to have borrowed as ὕσσωπος. Maimonides says that hyssop was صعتر, which is a kind of marjoram (on Maaseroth, iii, 9), and the plant called Miriamîyeh in Palestine (as Dr. Chaplin pointed out to me) is not only of this family, but grows from ruined walls, and is used for purposes of disinfection.
- ↑ The balsam כפר is noticed with cypress rose and chestnut (Shebiith, vii, 6).
