. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. or packs of various kinds atop his donkey or camel. One of the plants often mentioned in the Folklore is the Dead Sea fruit or apple of Sodom, Solanum coagulans, found near Jericho. This plant bears purplish flowers and fruits like small apples. When an insect has entered this fruit and fed upon it, the inside is reduced to dust, and then the fruit, just as the stories teil, literally crumbles at a touch. Among poisonous and medicinal plants are the
. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. or packs of various kinds atop his donkey or camel. One of the plants often mentioned in the Folklore is the Dead Sea fruit or apple of Sodom, Solanum coagulans, found near Jericho. This plant bears purplish flowers and fruits like small apples. When an insect has entered this fruit and fed upon it, the inside is reduced to dust, and then the fruit, just as the stories teil, literally crumbles at a touch. Among poisonous and medicinal plants are the lead- wort, Plumbago europaea, and the caper, Capparis spi- nosa, the latter, with its white petals and long fringe of purple stamens, often seen hanging from walls and rocks in and about Jerusalem. Another group comprises poison- ous plants used by the Arabs to catch fish. Included among these is the cyclamen. This plant, with its dainty flowers poised gracefully on their stems, their turned-back petals exactly the color of orchids, would seem to be destined r for more esthetic purposes than the litupefaction of fish. The life history of many plants is traced through vari- ous stages of development—the seed, the tiny plant, bud, blossom, fruit, and seed again. In many cases, too, we are shown the insect whose life is bound up with that of the plant. Some flowers last but a day and their life history is told hour by hour. We acclaim the archeologist for every fragment he turns up that gives some clue to the history of those days that produced the Bible and have had so great an in- fluence upon the world. But, after all, he works with dead things. Professor and Mrs. Ha-Reubeni, in the Museum of Biblical Botany, work with living things—plants that flourished in the days of Solomon and of Jesus and are still growing today—not only making the Bible more real, but giving us a wonderful sense of the continuity of life and of the comforting fact that truths are eternal. '^l \ 4
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