" A grove sprung up— laden with fair fruit—
greedily they plucked
The fruitage, fair to sight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom rlamed. This more delusive, not the touch, but taste Deceived. They, fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste With spattering noise rejected."
Some travellers, unable to discover this singular pro- duction, have considered it merely as a figure of speech, depicting the deceitful nature of all vicious enjoy- ments ; but Kitto (Phys. Hist, of Palest, p. cexe sq.) adduces the definite testimony of many modern trav- ellers to show that these allusions are based upon truth, especially the statements of Seetzen (in Zach's Monatl. Con-esp. xviii, 442) and Burckhardt (Syria, p. 392), whose accounts of the fruit of the Oshtir (prob. Asclepias giganted) remarkably coincide with the an- cient descriptions. This plant is figured and de-
Apple Of Sodom (.I.s"7i7//((X (i-V; ttntr,,).
scribed by Prosper Alpinus under the name Beid el- Ossar (Hist. Nat. JEgypte, Lugd. Bat. 1735, pt. i, 43). See also Irby and Mangles (Travels, ch. viii). Has- selquist, however, finds the "apples of Sodom" in the Solanum Sodomeum, which he identifies witli the Sola- num melongena, or mad-apple, growing in great abund- ance in the plain of the Jordan (fitise, p. 151). But Dr. Robinson thinks the other the most probable plant. His description of it is as follows : "We saw here [on the shore of the Dead Sea] several trees of the kind, the trunks of which were 0 or 8 inches in diameter, and the whole height from 10 to 15 feet. It has a grayish, cork-like bark, with long oval leaves, and in its gen- eral appearance and character it might be taken for a gigantic perennial species of the milk-wced or silk-
APPLETOX
326
APSE
weed found in the northern parts of the American states. Its leaves and flowers are very similar to those of the latter plant, and when broken off it in like manner discharges copiously a milky fluid. The fruit greatly resembles externally a large smooth ap- ple or orange, hanging in clusters of three or four to- gether, and when ripe is of a yellow color. It was now fair and delicious to the eye, and soft to the touch ; but on being pressed or struck it explodes with a puff, like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the hand only the shreds of the thin rind and a few fibres. It is, indeed, filled chiefly with air like a bladder, which gives it the round form ; while in the centre a small slender pod runs through it from the stem, and is connected by thin filaments with the rind. The pod contains a small quantity of lino silk with seeds, precisely like the pod of the silk-weed, though very much smaller, being indeed scarcely the tenth part as large. The Arabs collect the silk and twist it into matches for their guns, preferring it to the common match, because it requires no sulphur to render it combustible. In the accounts of Tacitus and Jose- phus, after a due allowance for the marvellous in all popular reports, I find nothing which does not apply almost literally to the fruit of the Osher, as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with great care in order to preserve it from bursting. "We attempted to cany some of the boughs and fruit with us to Jerusa- lem, but without success. Hasselquist's apples of Sodom (the fruit of the Solarium melongciui) are much smaller than those of the Osher, and when ripe are full of small black grains. There is here, however, no- thing like explosion, nothing like 'smoke and ashes,' except occasionally, as the same naturalist remarks, ' when the fruit is punctured by an insect (Tenthredo), which converts the whole of the inside into dust, leav- ing nothing but the rind entire, without any loss of color.' We saw the Solanum and the Osher growing side by side ; the former presenting nothing remark- able in its appearance, and being found in other parts of the country, while the latter immediately arrested our attention by its singular accordance with the an- cient story, and is, moreover, peculiar in Palestine to the shores of the Dead Sea" {Bib. Researches, ii, 236 sq. ; conip. Wilson, Bible Lands, i, 8 sq.). See Sodom.
It should be observed that the Bible speaks only of the ''vine of Sodom," and that metaphorically (Deut. xxxii, 32), as a synonym of a poisonous berry. See Hemlock.
Appleton, Jesse, D.D., president of Bowdoin College, was born at New Ipswich, New Hampshire, Nov. 17, 1772, and was graduated at Dartmouth Col- lege in 1792. Having spent two years in teaching at Dover and Amherst, he studied theology under Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield, and in February, 1797, was ordained pastor at Hampton, New Hampshire. His religious sentiments at this period were Arminian. By his faithful, affectionate services he was very much endeared to his people. At his suggestion the Pis- ■ : iqua Evangelical Magazine was published, to which l: contributed valuable essays, with the signature of Leighton. In 1807 he was chosen president of Bow- doin College, in which office he served faithfully until bis death, Nov. 12, 1819. In health he was sometimes anxious, i„ a high degree, in regard to the college; but in his sickness he said, in cheerful confidence, ■• God has taken care of the college, and God will take can <;/'//." Among his last expressions were heard the words, "Glory to God in the highest! the whole earth Bhall be tilled with his glory." In 1*20 a volume of his addn --- was published, with a sketch of his character, by Rev. I>r. Hicholfl, of Portland. In 1*22 his lectures and occasional sermons were published, with a memoir, by Rev, B. Tappan. These and other writings are collected in "The Works of Jesse Appleton, D.D.," with memoir (Andover, 1836, 2 vols. 8vo).— Bibl. Reposi- tory, Jan. 1830, p. 19 ; Sprague, Annals, ii. 382.