Note 1 — Chapter I
Reading edition
: Two species of Rhizophora, two of Bruguiera, and one of Ceriops.
2: Paritimn tilliaceum.
3: Thespesia populnea.
4: Tamarix Indica.
5: Dilivaria ilicifolia.
6: Nipa fruticans.
7: Hernandia sonora.
8: The identification of this tree with the mustard-tree alluded to by our Saviour is an interesting fact. The Greek term [Greek: sinapis], which occurs Matt. xiii 31, and elsewhere, is the name given to mustard; for which the Arabic equivalent is chardul or khardal, and the Syriac khardalo. The same name is applied at the present day to a tree which grows freely in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and generally throughout Palestine; the seeds of which, have an aromatic pungency, which enables them to be used instead of the ordinary mustard (Sinapis nigra); besides which, its structure presents all the essentials to sustain the illustration sought to be established in the parable, some of which are wanting or dubious in the common plant, It has a very small seed; it may be sown in a garden: it grows into an "herb," and eventually "becometh a tree; so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." With every allowance for the extremest development attainable by culture, it must be felt that the dimensions of the domestic sinapis scarcely justify the last illustration; besides which it is an annual, and cannot possibly be classed as a "tree." The khardal grows abundantly in Syria: it was found in Egypt by Sir Gardner Wilkinson; in Arabia by Bové; on the Indus by Sir Alexander Burnes; and throughout the north-west of India it bears the name of kharjal. Combining all these facts, Dr. Royle, in an erudite paper, has shown demonstrative reasons for believing that the Salvadora Persica, the "kharjal" of Hindostan, is the "khardal" of Arabia, the "chardul" of the Talmud, and the "mustard-tree" of the parable.