2. That Hyssope is taken for that Plant which cleansed the Leper, being a well scented, and very abstersive Simple, may well be admitted; so we be not too confident, that it is strictly the same with our common Hyssope: The Hyssope of those parts differing from that of ours; as Bellonius hath observed in the Hyssope which grows in Judæa, and the Hyssope of the Wall mention’d in the Works of Solomon, no kind of our Hyssope; and may tolerably be taken for some kind of minor Capillary, which best makes out the Antithesis with the Cedar. Nor when we meet with Libanotis, is it to be conceived our common Rosemary, which is rather the first kind thereof among several others, used by the Ancients.
Hemlock. Hosea 10. 4. Amos 6. 2.
3. That it must be taken for Hemlock, which is twice so rendred in our Translation, will hardly be made out, otherwise than in the intended sense, and implying some Plant, wherein bitterness or a poisonous quality is considerable.
Paliurus.
4. What Tremelius rendreth Spina, and the Vulgar Translation Paliurus, and others make some kind of Rhamnus, is allowable in the sense; and we contend not about the species, since they are known Thorns in those Countries, and in our Fields or Gardens among us: and so common in Judæa, that men conclude the thorny Crown of our Saviour was made either of Paliurus or Rhamnus.
Rubus.
5. Whether the Bush which burnt and consumed not, were properly a Rubus or Bramble, was somewhat doubtfull from the Original and some Translations, had not the Evangelist, and S. Paul express’d the same by the Greek word Bάtos, which from the description of Dioscorides, Herbarists accept for Rubus; although the same word Bάtos expresseth not onely the Rubus or kinds of Bramble, but other Thorn-bushes, and the Hipp-briar is also named Κυνοσβάτος, or the Dog-briar or Bramble.
Myrica. Cant. 1. 14.
6. That Myrica is rendred, Heath, sounds instructively enough to our ears, who behold that Plant so common in barren Plains among us: But you cannot but take notice that Erica, or our Heath is not the same Plant with Myrica or Tammarice, described by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and which Bellonius declareth to grow so plentifully in the Desarts of Judæa and Arabia.