He states that whole plains are sometimes covered with this shrub, and that such places are favorite places of pasturage, as sheep are remarkably fond of the pods. Lord Lindsay again, while travelling in the middle of the valleys of Mount Sinai, says, "■ The rattam, a species of broom, bearing a white flower, deli- cately streaked with purple, afforded me frequent shelter from the sun while in advance of the caravan" {Letters, p. 183). Dr. Robinson, in his journey from Akabah to Jerusalem, says {Researches, ii, 1-24) : " The shrubs which we had met with throughout the desert still continued. One of the principal of these is the retem, a species of the broom-plant, the Genista rcrtmn of Forskal. This is the largest and most conspicuous shrub of these deserts, growing thickly in the water-courses and valleys. Our Arabs always selected the place of encampment, if pos-
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sible, in a spot where it grew, in order to be sheltered by it at night from the wind ; and during the day, wlien they often went on in advance of the camels, we found them not unfrequently sitting or sleeping under a bush of retem to protect them from the sun. It was in this very desert, a day's journey from Beersheba, that the prophet Elijah lay down and slept beneath the same shrub" (1 Kings xix, 4, 5, "under aj/niiper-trcc"). It affords shade and protection, both in heat and storm, to travellers (Yirgil, Geor;/. ii, 434,430), and Bonar describes it as particularly useful for shelter in the peninsula of Arabia Petra^a {Sinai, p. 190).
Ill the other passages the meaning is not so clear, and therefore different interpretations have been given. Thus Job (xxx, 4) says of the half-famished people who despised him, "Who cut up mallows bj^ the bushes, and rothem-xoots for their food." Though the broom-root may perhaps be more suitable for diet than the juniper, yet they are both too bitter and medicinal to be consid- ered or used as nutritious, and therefore some say that " when we read that i-otkem-roots were their food, we are to suppose a great deal more than the words express, namely, that their hunger was so violent as not to re- frain even from these roots," which were neither refresh- ing nor nourishing. Dr. Thomson's ingenious sugges- tion (Land aiul Book, ii, 438), that perhaps the mallows only were used for food, and the rothem-roots as fuel to cook them with, seems hardl}' tenable from the phrase- ology. Ursinus supposes (.! rboret. Bibl. c. 27) that in- stead of the roots of this broom we are to understand a plant which grows upon these roots, as well as upon some other plants, and which is well known by the Eng- lish name of broom-rape, the orobancke of botanists. These are sometimes eaten. Thus Dioscorides (ii, 136) observes that the orobancke, which grows from the roots of broom, was sometimes eaten raw, or boiled like as- paragus. Celsius again suggests an amendment in the sentence, and thinks that we should understand it to mean that the broom-roots were required for fuel, and not for J'oofJ, as the Hebrew words signifying ,/)/('? and Jood, though very similar to each other, are very differ- ent in their derivation (see Gesenius, Thesaiir. p. 1317; on the contrary, Michaelis, Neiie Orient. Bibl. v, 4, 5), and this sense is contirmed by some of the Talmudical writ- ers, as R. Levi ben-Gerson, in his remarks on this pas- sage, says. The broom is the only fuel procurable in many of these desert situations (see Thevenot, Trav. i, 222). In Psa. cxx, 4, David observes that the calum- nies of his enemies were "like arrows of the mighty, with coals of rothem.'^ ' The broom, being no doubt very commonly used as fuel in a country where it is abim- dant and other plants scarce, might readily suggest itself in a comparison ; but it is also described as sparkUng, burning, and crackling more vehemently than other wood, and the Arabs regard it as yielding the best char- coal. Thus the tree which afforded shade to Elijah may have furnished also the " coals" or ashes for baking the cake which satisfied his hunger (1 Kings xix, 6). See Celsius, Hierohot. i, 24G; OQAma.xm,Verni. Sammhm- gen, ii, 8; Forskal, Flora yEcj. et Arab. p. Ivi and 214; Schultens, Comment, on .Job, ad loc. ; Robinson, Research. i, 299; Burckhardt, Si/ria, p. 483; Pliny, H. N. xxiv, 9, 65; \ia[Un\x,PlantsoftheBible,\).bQ; Stanley, <S. fmd P. p.20.79,521.— Kitto.
Junius, Francis, son of the following, was born at Heidelberg, 1589. In early life he studied mathemat- ics, but finally turned his attention to literature and the- ology. After finishing his studies he went to France to visit his parents. In 1620 he came over to England, and was received into the house of the earl of Arundel, where he lived as his librarian for thirty years. In 1050 he returned to the Continent, in order to pass some time in the bosom of his family. Ft)r two years he lived in Friesland, in a district where the ancient Saxon tongue was preserved, that he might studv the lan- guage. In 1675 he returned to England, and in 1676 went to Oxford, whence he retired to Windsor, to his
nephew Isaac Vossius, and died there Nov. 19, 1677. He was a very learned iihilologian, as is evinced by his writings, which arc be pidura Veterum, libri iii (Am- sterdam, 1637, 4to) ; — Obserrationes in Willerami Para- phrasim Francicam Cantici Canticonim (Amsterdam, 1655, 8vo) : — Annotationes in harmoniam Latino-franci- cam (jiKittior J'.nniiidixtantm Latine a Tatian. confec- tam (AnistiTil. Wuuk f<\-<>} -.^QiKituor D.N. J. C.Evan- (jeUorinn I '< /■siomsju raiitiqme duce, Gothica scilicet etAn- f/lo-saxonica, etc.; Accedit et (jlossarium Gothicum: cui pr-(emittitur alphubetum Gothicum, Rumcum, Anr/lo-sax- onicum, etc. (Dordrechti, 1655, 4to) : — Ccedemonis Para- ph rasis poetica Geneseos (Amsterdam, 1655, 4to). His Fti/molof/icii7n Anr/licanum was edited by Edward Lye, Oxford, 'l743, folio.— Kitto, Cijclop. Bibl. Lit. i, 697.