Palestine: the physical geography and natural history of the Holy Land / By John Kitto. Illustrated with one hundred and seventy-one woodcuts, by the most eminent artists.

  • John Kitto
Date:
1841
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Palestine: the physical geography and natural history of the Holy Land / By John Kitto. Illustrated with one hundred and seventy-one woodcuts, by the most eminent artists. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    But the botany of the Scriptures has offered a subject to more than one original writer ; yet not one of them has in this branch of inquiry attained an eminence comparable to that which Bochart reached in another. Their works are comparatively of small extent ; nor did any of them, like the author of the ‘ Hierozoicon,’ so exhaust their subject as to preclude suc- cessors and competitors. ‘The principle on which they proceeded was essentially the same as his; but while none excelled and scarcely any equalled him in learning, not one, except Celsius, approached him in that vast and ready erudition which enabled him so profusely and variously to support his views by facts and illustrations from the classical and oriental writers. Another disadvantage under which Biblical botanists have laboured has been, that it is still more difficult to identify the plants than even the animals mentioned in Scripture: so that in this department, even more than in the zoology of the Bible, the reader is perplexed or left unsatisfied by abundance of unsupported conjecture, and by conclusions unwarranted by the premises on which they are founded. Although the botany of the Bible had not been previously overlooked entirely, the first name of any note in this line of inquiry is that of John Henry Ursinus, whose ‘ Arboretum Biblicum”* appeared the year before (1663) the first edition of the ‘ Hierozoicon’ of Bochart. Under the reservation we have stated in reference to the class, this is a learned and useful work ; which character applies also, though in a less degree, to the botanical tracts which form about one-half of a second volume in the edition of 1685. These are, ‘ Sacra Phyto- logia,”® ‘ Herbarius Sacer,’ and ‘ Hortus Aromaticus.’ The first is the most fanciful, and the second is now the most useful. The next Biblical botanist of note is Matthew Hiller, who died (1725) a few months before his able and judicious work, the ‘ Hierophyticon,’* appeared. This work assumes the form of a commentary on those passages of Scripture in which plants are mentioned. We regard - with much satisfaction one short supplementary chapter of this work (chap. xl.), in which the author collects, from various sources, notices of plants actually growing in Palestine. The list is meagre, and the authorities consulted very few. But it suffices to show that Hiller was sen- sible of the value of such information ; and if he had extended his researches in this direc- tion, and allowed the results to influence and guide his larger investigations, he might have produced such a work on Scriptural botany as is still a desideratum in Biblical literature. But the most distinguished name in this branch of Biblical illustration is undoubtedly that of Olaus Celsius.4 This distinguished man—whose name may be best known to general readers as that of the patron of Linnzeus—appears to us to have treated the branch of inquiry which engaged his attention in a more judicious spirit than had been exhibited in any previous work on any part of the natural history of the Bible. From this we do not except the ‘ Mierozoicon ;’ and if the name of Celsius is less eminent than that of Bochart, it can only be from the more limited range of his inquiries, and the comparatively small size of the work which resulted from them. Celsius—while he equalled any of his predecessors in acquaintance with the materials of illustration which the languages of Greece and Rome supplied, and was exceeded by none in the ready use of the certainly not less valuable information derivable from oriental sources—excelled them all in the intimate knowledge of living nature, whereby he was enabled to identify, with unusual confidence and success, many of the subjects of botany mentioned in ancient writings. He had, moreover, travelled in the East, and was so fully impressed with the importance of the positive facts which only travellers in Palestine could supply, for the elucidation of the natural history of that country, that, although he leans much towards that learned mode of investigation which we have already characterised, he gaye very unwonted prominence and weight to the facts of this class with which his tolerably extensive reading in books of travel in Palestine had made him acquainted. This combination @ Jo. Henr. Ursini Arboretum Biblicum, in quo Arbores et Frutices passim in S. Literis occurrentes, Notis Philologicis, Philo- sophicis, Theologicis, exponuntur et illustrantur. Norimb. 1685, 12mo. This title well expresses the general character of such works. The second work or volume, the tracts contained in which are separately noticed in the text, bears the collective title of * Historize Plantarum Biblice.’ ee b He explains his meaning: ‘ Sacra Phytologia est descriptio historico—theologica Stirpium Biblicarum ad laudem Creatoris. © ‘Hierophyticon, sive Commentarius in Loca Scripture Sacre, que Plantarum facinnt Mentionem.’ Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1725, 4to. d Olavi Celsii Hierobotanicon, sive de Plantis S. Scripture, Dissertationes Breves. Amstel., 1748.
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