JOB’S TEARS.—The pretty East Indian Grass, Coix lacryma, is called Job’s Tears on account of the formation of its hard beard-like seeds, of which Gerarde says “every graine resembleth the drop or teare that falleth from the eye.”——Among the Arabs, the Fleabane (Inula dysenterica) is also called Job’s Tears (See [Fleabane]).
JONAH’S GOURD.—According to the Greek version of the Scriptures, the plant under which Jonah sat was a Gourd, but the Vulgate considers it a species of Ivy. The Ricinus communis, the Castor-oil-tree, with its broad palmate leaves, has been, however, identified with the Kikayon, which God caused to rise up and shelter Jonah.
Joseph’s Flower.—See [Goat’s Beard].
JUDAS TREE.—The Fig, the Tamarisk, the Aspen, the Dog Rose, the Elder, and the Cercis have all been named as the tree from whose boughs the traitorous Judas, overcome with remorse, hung himself in guilty despair. The idea that the Fig-tree was the tree whereon Judas sought his fate, is a wide-spread one, and probably derives its origin from the fact of our Lord having cursed an unproductive Fig-tree,—the tradition being that, after this malediction, the tree lost its foliage, and soon died; that its wood, when put in the fire, produced smoke, but no flame; and that all its progeny from that time forth became wild Fig-trees.——A Fig-tree growing on the coast of Coromandel, bears the name of Judas’ Purse.——De Gubernatis, on the authority of Dr. J. Pitré, states that, according to a Sicilian tradition, Judas was not hung on a Fig, but on a Tamarisk-tree, called Vruca (Tamarix Africana), much more common than the Tamarix Gallica. The Vruca is only a shrub; but, say the Sicilians, once upon a time it was a great tree, and very handsome. Since, however, the traitor Judas hung himself from its boughs, the tree, owing to a Divine malediction, became merely a shrub, ugly, mis-shapen, small, useless, not even capable of lighting even the smallest fire; from whence has arisen the proverb: “You are like the wood of the Vruca, which neither yields cinders nor fire.”——A Russian proverb says: “There is a tree which trembles, although the wind does not blow.” In the Ukraine, they state that the leaves of the Aspen (Populus tremula) have trembled and shaken ever since the day that Judas hanged himself on a bough of that tree.——In Germany, the Dog Rose (Rosa canina) is a tree of ill repute, and according to tradition, one with which the Devil has had dealings. (See [Eglantine]). There is a legend that Judas hanged himself on this tree; that in consequence it became accursed, and ever after turned to the earth the points of its thorns; and that from this cause its berries, to this day, are called Judasbeeren.——In England and other countries, there has long existed a tradition that the Elder was the tree on which the traitor-disciple hanged himself. Sir John Maundevile, in his ‘Travels,’ declares that he saw the identical tree; and we read in ‘Piers Plowman’s Vision’:—
“Judas, he japed
With Jewen silver,
And sithen on an Eller
Hanged hymselfe.”
Gerarde, however, in his ‘Herbal’ (1597) denies that the Elder was the tree, but states that the Arbor Judæ, the Judas-tree, is the Cercis Siliquastrum (Wild Carob-tree). “It may,” says the old herbalist, “be called in English Judas-tree, for that it is thought to be that whereon Judas hanged himselfe, and not upon the Elder-tree, as it is vulgarly said.” A similar belief is entertained by the French and Italians, who regard the Cercis Siliquastrum as an infamous tree. The Judas-tree grows about twenty feet high, has pale green foliage and purple papilionaceous flowers, which appear in the Spring in large clusters: they are succeeded by long flat pods, containing a row of seeds. Curiously enough, the Spaniards and Portuguese, on account of what Gerarde terms its “braveness,” call it the
“Tree of Love.”