516
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. v. JUNE so, igoe.
allow the escape of the seed, then in a con-
dition to germinate. The figured illustra-
tions in the botanical ' Dictionary ' referred
to, or better, perhaps, the dried specimens
preserved at the Herbarium, accord with
the Italian lady's description, "a tiny,
dry, horn - shaped flower, about the size
of a finger-nail," and also with that of De
Saulcy, "a dried Eastern daisy." Smith's
4 Dictionary of the Bible ' bluntly says :
"The so-called 'Rose of Jericho ' is no rose
at all " !
All this, however, does not bring us nearer to a reply to the query, or the origin of the connexion between the "rose plant of Jericho" and the Anastatica hierochuntina. Nothing appears to come nearer to it than the remarks in the Kew Gardens Bulletin for 1897 (p. 210), which refer to herbalists of the sixteenth century who described and figured the Anastatica h. as the Rosen von Hiericho or Rosa hierichuntis ; and evidence of identity is found in the adoption of the flower or plant by Crusader-knights as a charge in their armorial bearings. But it is a far cry from the time of the son of Siracli
which Wisdom was likened in grace and
dignity. W. L. BUTTON.
What says Sir Thomas Browne in 'Pseudo- doxia Epidemica, or an Enquiry into Vulgar Errors'?
But that which passeth under this name, and by us is commonly called the rose of Jericho, is properly no rose, but a small thorny shrub or kinde of heath, bearing little white flowers, farre differ- ing from the rose, whereof Bellonius, a very in- quisitive Herbalist, could not finde any in his travells thorow Jericho."
H. A. ST. J. M.
" DOG'S NOSE" (10 th S. v. 187, 252, 414). The exact reference to Mr. Stanley Wey- man's * Starvecrow Farm ' (cited ante, p. 253), is 1905, chap, xxxiv. p. 319. "Dog's nose" there is a mixture of ale and hollands.
H. P. L. (ante, p. 253) gives "early purl" as a synonym for "dog's nose." 4< Purl" used to mean *' ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale and bitters drunk warm." See Grose's ' Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,' 1796 and 1823. See also ' A New Dictionary of Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew. By B. E.,
to the age of the Crusaders two thousand Gent." (reprint) ; also Bailey's, Johnson's,
years and more ; and have we any surety, and Dyche's dictionaries. Webster ~ ; " -
or indeed is it claimed, that tradition had similar definition, but says "at
handed down to the knights the identity of boiled beer with gin, sugar, and spices added
the rose- plant extolled as a symbol of the to it." There was also "purl royal," i.e.,
gives a
present
excellence of Wisdom ? Rather may we think
that at Jericho the Christians, having found
the strange reviving plant, had adopted it as
a symbol of the Resurrection ; that the
herbalists of the sixteenth century wrote of
it as the rose of Jericho (Rosa hierichuntis) ;
and that later scientists named it the
Resurrection plant of Jericho (Anastatica hierochuntina).
Dean Stanley, whom I previously quoted,
is not the only traveller who has thought
that in the beautiful oleander which grows
by the streams throughout Palestine, and
notably in the oasis of Jericho, is probably
seen the "rose-plant" of the son of Sirach,
" the rose growing by the brook of the field "
(Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 14 and xxxix. 13). To
the Greeks the oleander was the rhododen- dron, i.e., rose tree. In growth it varies,
according to locality, from a shrub ranging
from 6 feet to 14 feet high (Nicholson) " to
the proportions of a forest tree," under the 1 apparently tally with
shade of which Canon H. B. Tristram had also misquotes ' P ; ~ } ~
rested and encamped ('Natural History of chapter nor page
the Bible,' 1867, p. 416). This shrub or tree, | sugar and nutmeg.
with its beautiful roseate flowers, set in
glossy dark- green foliage, would not be
unworthy to stand with the stately trees-
canary wine with a dash of wormwood ; see
the two first dictionaries mentioned above.
Webster quotes Richardson, s.v. 'Purl':
"Probably so named because it purls or
mantles in the glass."
Seeing that one of the meanings of " purl " is " a small, narrow edging or lace, set or made upon the edge of a broad lace" (see Dyche), is there any connexion between 'purl" (the liquor) and "to lace," i.e., to add spirits to coffee, &c. 1
Bailey in that part of his dictionary called " An Orthographical Dictionary ' (1727) gives " Biere absynthe " ( r ( " Biere d'absynthe " or " Biere absynthee ") and " Cervisia absyn- thiata " as the French and Latin equivalents of " purl " (the liquor).
As to "dog's nose," Brewer in his 'Dic- tionary of Phrase and Fable,' third edit., says, ' Gin and beer, a mixture as cold as a nose" (a derivation which does not the meaning). He giving neither He omits the moist No doubt he refers to
the passage which is given in the ' New English Dictionary' from 'Pickwick' (the reference therein should be chap, xxxii.,
Oedar ? cypress, palm, olive, and plane to not xxxiii.) : " Cornpounclecl o f warm porter
