he natural growth is dependent on the moisture brought by the sea-breeze, and thus in Lebanon and in Palestine alike the slopes west of the watershed are covered with copse, while those to the east—shut out from the moisture—are bare. In Eastern Pales- tine the woods of oak and pine covering Gilead are more extensive than in any otherdistrict. Theslopes here face the west, sat springs issue from the surface of the dolomitie rocks, the water having sunk through the chalky surface of the desert lateaus farther east. The oak woods. west of Nazareth, and in Sharon, have been sadly thinned, and a pine wood south of Bethlehem—noticed by
Arculphus about A.D. 670—is now represented only by a few stunted trees. The words used for forest in the OT (yaar and horesh) refer, how ever, to copse rather than to woods; and the occurrence of single trees (oak and terebinth), often noticed in the OT, is still a feature of the scenery. The Aleppo pine (P. Haleppensis), which appears on Lebanon and Carmel, is olay not native. It bears a name (sindbar) which ap-
ars to be Greek, and under this term is noticed in the Mishna in the 2nd cent A.D. The native pine (P. Carica) found in Gilead is more
robably the ‘fir’ (1K 6%, Ezk 275) of the
T. The copse, consisting of dwarf oak, mastic, styrax (stacte, Ex 30% ndtaph), hawthorn, and other shrubs, is found chiefly on the harder lime- stone, especially in Upper Galilee, on Carmel, in Samaria, and on the Hebron mountains and the spurs west of Jerusalem. Near the watershed the hills are ney bare, but covered with thyme, mint, and the delldn (or Poteriwm Spinosum), a brown prickly rosaceous plant. The hyssop, and other kinds of marjoram, are commonly found growing on ruins. The carob occurs as a single tree, like the sycomore fig, and the di/b or plane (Gn 30%’). The poplar is found in various localities in Palestine (see Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, 290, and ef. Hos 418, where, however, the rendering should perhaps be ‘styrax,’ see art. POPLAR); but the beech does not occur south of the Northern Lebanon, though growing on chalky soils in Asia Minor. The acacia and the tamarisk (Gn 21%, 1S 22% 313) are ey, found in the Jordan Valley, and the white broom (1 Καὶ 19*, Ps 190", Job 30*) is common in the deserts of Moab and Judah and in the Negeb. Among smaller plants the cistus (Jot, AV and RV ‘myrrh’ [which see], RVm ‘ladanum,’ Gn 37” 43") is very common on the chalk; and the plains of Sharon and Jordan are covered with many wild flowers, esp. the pink phlox, the pheasant’s eye, and the narcissus (prob- ably the Rose of Sharon); while the common lily of the country, planted by Moslems in graveyards, is the purple iris. A complete account of the fauna and flora of Palestine occupies two volumes of the Memoirs of the Survey, and only the more conspicu- ous features noticed in the Bible are here mentioned. Cultivated plants in Palestine, as corn (wheat and barley), balm, and fruits, together with wine, oil, and honey, are noticed in Egyptian records (Records of Past, 1st series, ii. 17 f.) as early as B.c. 1600. The almond (Juz, Gn 43") grows wild in Lebanon and Moab, and the oil tree (1 K 6%) or oleaster is also not uncommon on the hills. The apple (tappuah) is not common, but the Heb. word survives in the Arabic tuffaéh; the ash (Is 44%) is the Fraxinus Ornus, the common ash being unknown. The box (Is 412° 6013) grows in Lebanon; the Syrian Bepyrus differs from that of Egypt, and is found in Merom, in the Sharon rivers, and at Gebal, as well as the Egyp. species. The chief fruit trees are the olive, fig, pomegranate, and apricot, which last, however, with the citron, prickly pear, walnut, and other fruits, seems to Eave Veen introduced at a late
eriod. The vegetable products noticed in the
entateuch appear to be all of great antiquity. The citron (introduced from Media by the Persians) and the walnut (’ég6z, Arab 702), said to bear a Per- sian name, are unmentioned, as are cotton and silk, though both are now known in the country. Flax (Hos 2°, see Jos 2°), which was grown at Nazareth in the 12th cent. A.D., and which is noticed in the Mishna, is one of the oldest materials used by man. It may be here noted that the only foreign
plants in the Pentateuch are calamus and cassia from Tonia (Ezk 27! [?; text dub.]), or from Uzal in Arabia according to the LXX, with myrrh from Arabia, and probably frankincense and cinnamon
PALESTINE
PALESTINE 645
The sea trade with Asia Minor is, however, men-
tioned on monuments of the 15th cent. B.c., and that with Arabia goes back ten centuries earlier. Gum tragacanth and balm (Gn 37%), pistachio nuts (Gn 43"), honey, and almonds, were natural products of Palestine, as were stacte (or styrax) and ladanum (Gn 37” 43") or cistus. Palestine has also always been very productive of gourds, cucumbers, vetches, melons, pulse, and other vegetables. The henna used as a dye (Ca 418) is native, as is saffron or crocus (Ca 44), The kirsenneh, which is a common crop, probably re- presents the Heb. kuysemeth (Ezk 45). The alkali lant (Jer 2%, Mal 33) grows esp. near the Dead