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Art. VI.—On the Identification of the Mustard Tree of Scripture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

J. Forbes Royle
J. Forbes Royle
Affiliation:
Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, King's College, London.
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Extract

Numerous attempts have at different times been made by a variety of authors to identify the two plants which in the authorised version of the Scriptures are translated Mustard Tree and Hyssop. That these attempts have not been so satisfactory to others, as to set the questions at rest, is evident from fresh plants being continually adduced, even in recent works, as possessed of the requisite characteristics. It may be inferred that these do not appear, to the author of this paper, to have been more successful than preceding endeavours, from his making a fresh, and which to many will appear a presumptuous attempt to determine what has baffled so many able inquirers. Few fields, however, are so barren, even after they seem to have been cleared by the most skilful reapers, as not to yield some grains to the careful gleaner. So, continued attention to any one pursuit, never fails to throw light, not only on itself, but also on other, and what at first appear but remotely connected subjects. Thus it has been in the study of ancient for the purpose of elucidating modern Materia Medica, and of both in connexion with the Botany of the East, that the author has been led to conclusions, which seem to elucidate some of the disputed points in Biblical botany.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 8 , Issue 15 , January 1846 , pp. 113 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1846

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References

page 113 note 1 Proceedings of the Royal Asiatic Society, 19th March, 1836.

page 114 note 1 Ikhtiarat Buddee, who completed his work in 770 of the Hejira, or a.d. 1392. He is said to be the first who wrote on Medicine in the Persian language.

Tohfet-al-Moomineen, written in a.d. 1669, by Meer Mohummud oomin; a native of Tinkaboon, in Dailim, near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.

Ulfaz Udwiyeh, compiled by the physician of the Emperor Shah Jehan; translated into English, by Mr. Oladwin, and printed in 1793. This is useful, as giving the synonymes in Arabic, Persian, and Hindooee, in the Persian character.

Mukhzun-al-Udwiyeh, or Storehouse of Medicines, written a.d. 1769, and printed at Hoogly, in 1824.

The Taleef Shereef, translated from the Persian by Superintending Surgeon Playfair, and published in Calcutta in 1833, has been referred to in a few instances.

Since my return to this country in 1832, having Obtained copies of the Latin editions of Mesue, Serapion, Rhazes, and Avicenna, I have in many instances collated them with my manuscript catalogue.

page 127 note 1 Can this be the plant to which Burckhardt alludes as the tree of which the Affghans make tooth-brushes on their pilgrimage to Mecca?

page 128 note 1 Mr. Bennett informs me that there are specimens in the British Museum from Muscat, collected by Aucher-Eloy.

page 130 note 1 In Indian writers we see that irak, is applied to the same tree.

page 130 note 2 Mr. Johnson, in his recently published and interesting work, intitled, Travels in Southern Abyssinia, says, “ The Moomen, or tooth-brush tree (Salvadora persica) abounded at Sakeitaban. Several of the Hy Soumaulee brought me a handful of the berries to eat; but I was soon obliged to call out, ‘Hold, enough!’ so warmly aromatic was their flavour. This singular fruit grows in drooping clusters of flesh-coloured, mucilaginous berries, the size of our common red currants, each containing a single round seed, about as large as a pepper-corn. The taste at first is sweet, and not unpleasant, and by some, I think, would be considered very agreeable indeed. After some little time, if many are eaten, the warmth in the palate increases considerably, and reminded me of the effect of pepper, or of very hot cress. As we approached the river Hawasb, I found these trees growing more abundantly.

“ The moomen forms a dense bush, some yards in circuit, and as their sleek, velvety, round leaves, of a bright green colour, afford an excellent shade, they form the favorite lairs, both of savage man and of wild beasts. Reposing upon the ground, near the roots, free from underwood and thorns, whoever, or whatever lies there is entirely covered from sight; and not unfrequently a leopard or a hyæna skulks out of, or a startled antelope bounds from the very bush that the tired Bedouin has selected for his own retreat from the sun.” Travels, , vol. i, p. 424.Google Scholar

Moomen is also the name of pepper, Mr. Johnson informs me.

page 131 note 1 Not the Doom Palm of Egypt (Cucifera thebaica).

page 136 note 1 Mr. Norris, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, has favoured me with the following note:—“I have looked at the old Syriac version of the passages where the mustard tree is named, and find the word The same is in the Chaldee. The modern Jews appear also to use the same word, for I find it in the Hebrew version of the New Testament.”