Capellua. See Cappbllus. Caper-PLANT (nji^^X, abiyonah', fh)m TOH, to desire , Sept. JcairTaptc) is mentioned only once in the Bible (Eccles. xii, 5): "When the almond-tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail ; because man goeth to his long home.** I The word here translated desire has been considered to signify the CAPER-berry. The reasons assigned for this opinion are that the rabbins apply the plural (nis'l'^aK, abyonoth': see Berachoth, xxxvi, 1) to the small fhiit of trees and berries, as well as to that of the caper-bush (Buxtorf, Lex. Taim. coL 12); that the caper-bush is common in Syria and Arabia (see Galen, Faeult. Alim. ii, 84); that its fruit was in early times eaten as a condiment, being stimulating in its nature, and therefore calculated to excite desire (Plutarch, Qufest. Symp. vi, 2; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xiii, 28; xx, 15; ' comp. xiii, 44; xx, 59; Dioscor. ii, 204); tliat as the ' caper-bush grows on tombs, it will be liable to be de- I stroyed when these are opened ; and, finally, that as I Solomon speaks here in symbols and allegories, we { must suppose him to deviate from the course he had apparently prescribed to himself if he were to express I in plain words that ** desire shall fail," instead of inti- I mating the same thing by the failure of that which is I supposed to have been used to excite desire. Celsius I (Hierobot. i, 210) argues, on the contrary, that Solomon . in other places, when treating of the pleasures of youth, I never speaks of capers, but of wine and perfumes; that, had he wished to adduce anything of the kind, he ' would have selected something more remarkable ; that ' capers, moreover, instead of being pleasantly' stimu- lant, are acrid and hurtful ; and though occasionally employed by the ancients as condiments, were little esteemed by them ; and, finally, that the word ab^O' nofh of the rabbins is distinct f^m the abiyonah of this , passage, as is admitted even by Ursinus (A rboret. BSh Ileum, xxviii, 1). The caper-plant, however, is often : mentioned in the Talmud (Maaseroth, iv, 6 ; Demai, i,
CAPER
99
CAPERNAXJM
1) bj the tenns fibs, ttdaph', n&Sd, fdttphah', and even D"»"»Bp, hapkrii' (Buxtorf, col.i919, 1381, 208l'8). But as the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Sjriac, and the Arabic transbitions have understood the caper-buth to be meant, it is desirable to give some account of it, especially as, from its ornamental natare, it coold not but attract attention. There are, moreover, some points in its natural histoiy which have been over- looked, but which may serve to show that in the pas- sage under review it might without impropriety have been employed in carrying out the figurative language with which the verse commences (see Plenk, PkaU, Med. p. 420 ; Sprengel, Hist, rei kerb, i, 14).
The caper-plant belongs to a tribe of plants, the Capparidaceie, of which the species are found in con- aderable numbers in tropical countries, such as India, whence they extend northward into Arabia, the north of Africa, Syria, and the south of Europe (Forskal, Fhr. p. 99 ; Shaw, p. 396). The common caper-bush — Capparis tptnoMOj Linn, (the C, tatitxi of Persoon)— is
Caper-plant iCapparU Spinom)^ with enlarged view of the Pericarp.
common in the countries immediately surrounding the Mediterranean. Dioscorides describes it as spreading in a circular manner on the ground, in poor soils and ragged situations ; and Pliny '* as being set and sown in stony places especially." Theophrastus states that it refuses to grow in cultivated ground. Dioscorides farther states that it has thorns like a bramble, leaves like the quince, and fhiit like the olive — characters almost sufficient to identify it. The caper is well known to the Arabs, being their kU>bur^ and designated also by the name athufor azuf. The bark of the root, which is still used in the East, as it formerly was in Europe, no doubt possesses some irritant property, as it was one of the five aperient roots. The unexpanded flower-buds, preserved in vinegar, are well known at oar tables as a condiment by the name of capers. Parts of the plant seem to have been similarly used by the ancients. The caper-plant is showy and orna- mental, growing in barren places in the midst of the rabbish of ruins, or on the walls of buildings. It was observed by Ray on the Temple of Peace at Rome, and in other similar situations. It forms a much-branched, <liffiise shrub, which annually loses its leaves. The branches are long and trailing; smooth, but armed wi& double curved stipulary spines. The leaves are •Hemate, roundish or oblong- oval, a little fleshy, Bnooth, of a green color, but sometimes a little red-
Capcr-berry.
dish. The flowers are large and showy, produced sin- gly in the axils of the leaves, on stalks which are larger than the leaves. The calyx is four-leaved, co- riaceous ; the petals are also four in number, white, and of an oval roundish form. The stamens are very numerous and long; and their filaments, being tinged with purple and terminated by the yellow anthers, give the flowers a very agreeable appearance. The ovary is borne upon a straight stalk,- which is a little longer than the sta- mens, and which, as it ripens, droops and forms an oval or pear-shaped ber- ry, inclosing within its pulp numerous small seeds. Many of the caper tribe, being remarkable for the long stalks by which their fhiit is supported, con- spicuously display, what also takes place in other plants, namely, the droop- ing and hanging down of the fhiit as it ripens. As, then, the flowering of the almond-tree, in the first part of the verse in question, has been supposed to refer to the whitening of the hair, so the drooping of the ripe fhiit of a plant like the caper, which is conspicuous on the walls of buildings and on tombs, may be supposed to typify the hanging down of the head before '* man goeth to his long home" (see the Penny Cyclopcedia, s. v. Capparidacen). — Kitto, s. v. Abiyonidi. See Hyssop.