1805, 4 vols. 4to), See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uthors, s. v. ; Darling, Cyclop. Biblioy. s. v.
Rose (rbS2n, chabatstseleth ; Sept. Kpivov, civB^oq; Aq. Kt'iXv^; \u\g./los, lilium') occurs twice only in the canonical Scriptures; namely, first in Cant, ii, 1, where the bride replies, " I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley," and secondly in Isa. xxxv, 1, '"The wil- derness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.''' There is much difference of opinion as to what particu- lar flower is here denoted. (In the following treatment of it we chiefly follow Royle in Kitto's Cyclopcedia.) Tremellius and Diodati, with some of the rabbins, be- lieve the rose is intended, but there seems to be no foun- dation for such a translation. The Sept. renders it sim- ply hy flmcer in the passage of the Canticles. In this it has been followed by the Latin Vulgate. Luther, etc. It is curious, however, as remarked by Celsius (Hierobot. i, 489), that many of those who translate chabatstseleth by rose or flower in the passage of the Canticles render it by lily in that of Isaiah. The rose was, no doubt, highly esteemed by the Greeks, as it was, and still is, by almost all Asiatic nations; and as it forms a very frequent subject of allusion in Persian poetry, it has been inferred that we might expect some reference to so favorite a flower in the poetical books of the Script- ure, and that no other is better calculated to illustrate the above two passages. But this does not prove that the word chabatstseleth or any similar one was ever ap- jilied to the rose. Other flowers, therefore, have been indicated, to which the name chabatstseleth may be sup- posed, from its derivation, to apply more fitly. Scheuzer refers to Hiller (Hierophyt. p. 2), who seeks chabatstseleth among the bulbous-rooted plants, remarking that the Hebrew word may be derived from chaljab and batsal.a. bulb, or bulbous root, of any plant, as we have seen it ap- plied to the onion (q. v.). So Rosenmiiller remarks that the substantial part of the Hebrew name shows that it denotes a flower growing from a bulb, and adds in a note "that chabatstseleth is formed from betsel, or bulb, the guttural cheth being sometimes put before triliterals in order to form quadriliterals from them" (see (iesen. Gram. p. 803). Some, therefore, have selected the as- phodel as the bulbous plant intended, respecting which the author o{ Scripture Illustrated remarks, " It is a very beautiful and odoriferous flower, and highly praised by two of the greatest masters of Grecian song. Hesiod says it grows commonly in woods, and Homer (Odyss. i, 24) calls the Elj'sian Fields 'meads filled with aspho- del.'" Celsius (loc. cit.) has already remarked that Bo- chart has translated chabatstseleth by nat-cissus (^Polyan- thus narcissus), and not without reason, as some Orien- tal translators have so explained it. In the Targum (Cant, ii, 1), instead of chabatstseleth we have narkom (Dip~i3), which, however, should have been written nurkos (D'ip"3), as appears from the words of David Cohen de Lara, " Narkos is the same as chabatstseleth of Sharon." So in Isa. xxxv, 1. chabatstseleth is written chamzaloito in the Syrian translation, which is the same as narcissus (Cels. Hierobot. i, 489). This, Rosenmiiller informs us (^Bibl. Bot. p. 142), according to the testimo- ny of Syriac-Arabic dictionaries, denotes the Colchicum autumnale, that is, the meadcno saffron. That plant certainly has a bulb - like root - stock ; in form the flowers resemble those of the crocus, and are of a light violet color, without scent. Narkom and narkos are, no doubt, the same as the Persian nurgus, which throughout the East indicates the Narcissus tazetta, or the Polyanthus narcissus. The ancients describe and allude to the narcissus on various occasions, and Celsius has quoted various passages from the poets indicative of the esteem in which it was held. Since they were not so particular as the moderns in distinguishing species, it is protiablc that more than one may be referred to by them, and therefore that A', tazetta may be included un- der the same name as N.poeticus, which was best known
ROSE
129
ROSE
Narcisn'us tazctta.
to them. It is not unimportant to remark that the nar- cissus was abo called Bulhus voiniiorius, or the Emetic hulbus, in Greek and Latin ; and the Arabic busl-al-ki/e no doubt refers to the same or a kindred species. It is curious, also, that an Eastern name, or the corruption of one, should be applied by gardeners even in Eng- land to a species of narcissus: thus, jV. (reirrumiis and crenulutus (the former supposed by some to be a varie- ty of A^. orienkilis) were once called " Bazalmun major" and "Bazalmun minor." That the narcissus is found in Syria and Palestine is well known, as it has been men- tioned by several travellers, and also that it is highly esteemed by all Asiatics from Sj'ria even as far as In- dia (comp. Soph, ffirf. Col. p. 698 sq. ; IMosch. Idyl, ii, 65 sq.; Athen. xv, 679 sq.). Chateaubriand {Ilineraire, ii, 130) mentions the narcissus as growing in the plain of Sharon; and Strand (Flo?: Palmst. No. 177) names it as a plant of Palestine, on the authority of Kauwolf and Hasselquist (see also Kitto, Pf/ys. Hist, nf Palest, p. 216). Hiller {IJierophyt. ii, 30) thinks the chahutstseleth de- notes some species of asphodel (Asphodeliis); but the finger-like roots of this genus of plants do not well ac- cord with the " bulb" root implied in the original w'ord. Thomson {La72d and Book;\, 161 ; ii,269) suggests the pos- sibility of the Hebrew name being identical with theAra- bic khuhbaizji, " the mallow," which plant he saw grow- ing abundantly on Sharon ; but this view can hardly be maintained. The Hebrew term is probabh' a quadri- literal noun with the harsh aspirate prefixed, and the prominent notion implied in it is helsel, " a bulb," and has therefore no connection with the above-named Arabic word. The narcissus alone is still called buseil by the natives of Palestine {Quar. Statement of the Palest, Ex- plor. Soc. Jan. 1878, p. 46). See Shakon.