The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris.

  • Thaddeus Mason Harris
Date:
1824
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/474 page 15
    APPLE-TREE. mon TAPHUAR. Occ. Prov.xxv. 11. Cantic. ii. 3. 5. vii. 8. viii. 5. Joel, i, 12. M. Maillet, Let. ix. p. 15. every where expresses a strong prejudice in favour of Egypt; its air, its water, and all its pro- ductions are incomparable. He acknowledges, however, that its apples and pears are very bad, and that in respect to these fruits, Egypt is as little favoured as almost auy place in the world ; that some, and those very indifferent that are carried thither from Rhodes and Damascus, are sold very dear. As the best apples of Egypt, though ordinary, are brought thither by sea from Rhodes, and by land from Damascus, we may believe that Judea, an intermediate country between Egypt and Damascus, has none that are of any value. ‘This is abundantly confirmed by D'Ar- vieux, who observed that the fruits that are most commonly eaten by the Arabs of Mount Carmel were figs, grapes, dates, apples, and pears, which they have from Damascus; apricots, both fresh and dried, melons, pasteques, or water-melons, which they make use of in summer instead of water to quench their thirst“. The Arabs then, of Judea, can find no apples there worth eat- ing, but have them pt from Damascus, as the people of Egypt have*. Can it be idlugined, then, that the apple trees of which the prophet Joel speaks, ch. i. 12. and which he mentions among the things that gave joy to the inhabitants of Judea, were those that we call by that name? Our translators must ‘surely have been mistaken here, since the apples which the inhabitants of Judea eat at this day are of foreign growth, and at the same time but very indifferent. Bp. Patrick, in his commentary on the Canticles, chap. vii. v. 8. supposes that the word ]>mpN TAPPUCHIM, translated ap- ples, is to be understood of the fruit to which we give that name, and also of oranges, citrons, peaches, and all fruits that breathe a fragrant odour; but the justness of this may be questioned. The Roman authors, it is true, call pomegranates, quinces, cit- rons, peaches, apricots, all by the common name of apples, only adding an epithet to distinguish them from the species of fruit which we call by that name, and from one another; but it does not appear that the Hebrew writers do so too. 'T he pomegran- ate certainly has its appropriate name; and the book of Canti- cles seems to mean a particular species of trees by t/us term, since it prefers them to all the trees of the wood. ‘This author then does not seem to be in the right when he gives such a vague sense to the word. What sort of tree and fruit then are we to understand by the word, since probably one particular species is designed by it, and ' 5 Voyage dans la Palestine, p. 201. *' Dr. Russell mentions “ two or three sorts of apples, but all very bad. ? Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, p. 21.
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