" The tree alluded to in Scripture, whatever it is, must be common in Palestine, must grow in the neighborhood of water, have its leaves easily moved, and have a name in some of the cognate languages similar to the Hebrew baka. The only one answeruig to these conditions is that called bak by the Arabs, or rather shajrat-al-bak— that is, the fly or gnat tree. It seems to be so called from its seeds, when loosened from their capsular cover- ing, floating about like gnats, in consequence of being covered with light, silk-like hairs, as is the case with those of the willow. In Richardson's Arabic dictionary the bak-tree is considered to be the elm ; but from a passage of Dioscorides, preserved by Plempius, the dirdar of the Arabians seems to be another kind of bak-tree, probably the arbor cuUcum (tree of gnats) of the Latin transla- tors of Avicenna. Now in other Arabic authors the dirdar is said to be a kind of ghuib, and the ghurb is as- certained to be the Lombardy poplar (Hlust. Himal. Bat. p. 344). As it seems therefore tolerably clear that the bak-tree is a kind of poplar, and as the Arabic hak is very similar to the Hebrew baka [but in the Heb. the h in the name is D, while in the Arabic it is that which corresponds to p], so it is probable that one of the kinds of poplar may be intended in the above passages of Scripture. And it must be noted that the poplar is as appropriate as any tree can be for the elucidation of the passages in which the name occurs. For the poplar is well known to delight in moist situations, and bishop Home, in his Comm. on Psa. Ixxxiv. has inferred that in the valley of Baca the Israelites, on their way to Je- rusalem, were refreshed hy plenty of water. It is not less appropriate in the passages in 2 Sam. and 1 Chron., as no tree is more remarkable than the poplar for the ease with which its leaves are rustled by the sUghtest movement of the air; an eftect which might be caused in a still night even by the movement of a body of men on the ground, when attacked in flank or while unpre- pared. That poplars are common in Palestine may be proved from Kitto's Palestine, p. 114: 'Of poplars we only know, with certaint}^, that the black poplar, the aspen, and the Lombardy poplar grow in Palestine. The aspen, v/hose long leaf-stalks cause the leaves to trem- ble with every breath of wind, unites with the willow and the oak to overshadow the watercourses of the Lower Lebanon, and, with the oleander and the acacia, to adorn the ravines of Southern Palestine ; we do not know that the Lombardy poplar has been noticed but
MULCASTER 124
by lord Lindsay, who describes it as growing with the wahiut-tree and weeping-willow under the deep torrents of the Upper Lebanon' " (Kitto). See Poplar.
Mulcaster, Kicn.\ui>, an English divine and teach- er noted for his scholastic attainments, was a native of Carlisle, and of an old family in Cumberland. He received his earliest education on the foundation at Eton, under the celebrated Udal, whence, in 1548, he was elected scholar of King's College, Cambridge. From Cambridge he removed to Oxford, and in 1555 was cho- sen student of Christ Church. In the next year he was licensed to proceed in arts, and about the same time became known for his prolicicncj- in Eastern literature. He began to teach in 1559 ; and on September 2i, 15(51, for his extraordinary attainments in ])liilology, was ap- pointed the first master of ^lerchant Tailors' School in London, then just founded. Here he continued till 1586, when he resigned; and some time after he was appointed upper master of St. Paid's School. Here he remained twelve years, and then retired to the rectory of Stanford Kivers, in Essex, to which he had been presented by the queen. He held this i)lace until his death, April 15, 1611. Several of his smaller compositions, commenda- tory verses, etc., are prefixed to works of his contempo- raries; and Gascoigne has printed some Latin verses of his composition which were spoken before the queen at Kenilworth in 1575. His separate works were, his Po- sitions, wherein those primitive circumstances be examined which are necessarie fur the training up of Children, either for skill in theire look or health in their hodie (Lond. 1581 and 1587, 4to) ; to which a second part was promised: — The first part of the Elementarie, which en- treuteth chefely of the light writing of the English tung (Lond. 1582, 4to); a book which Warton {Hist. EngUsh Poeti-y) says contains many judicious criticisms and ob- servations on the English language: — Catcchismus Pau- linus, in usum S<liiil<r J'(iiilii«i <(iiisi-/i/i/N.<. <id jhimum parvi illius Au'/lii-; ('(ild-hismi (jni jun i-i.< ill riiiiiiiiinii Precum Angliriinim /ilin> aliso mhis jin>jr_'iii/i/r ( If.Ol. 8vo). This is in long and short verse, and, though now- forgotten, was once esteemed. Mulcaster was a firm adherent to the Reformed religion ; a man of piety, and a " priest in his own house as well as in the temple." See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxx; Hook, Eccles. Biog. vii, 388, 389; English Cyclop, s. v.; Fuller, Worthies of England, s. v.